Sweat, Tears, and Evolutions: My Digimon Adventure
by Ackbarfan5556
Summary: Eight kids in Japan go to a seemingly normal Summer Camp for their vacation from school. However, fate has other plans. Join Taichi Yagami, Yamato Ishida, Sora Takenouchi, Ross McGlathery, Koushiro Izumi, Jou Kido, Mimi Tachikawa, and Takeru Takaishi as they go on a grand adventure not only to discover themselves but to determine the fate of two worlds...
1. Prologue

So first things first. Welcome, fellow readers! Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my story that probably will be just one giant mistake. I'm truly blessed.

My story with Digimon is that it is a show that I grew up with and loved every single minute of it. I didn't miss a single episode of it when it premiered in the States all the way back since August 14th, 1999, from the start of Adventure and all the way through Adventure 02. And to this day it remains my favorite show of all time, at that's saying something. Beats out great shows like MST3K and Whose Line Is It Anyways?

Anyways, the idea of this story dates back many, many years ago since, shoot, maybe 2005 or something like that, and it's gone through many development changes. An example being, my partner was originally a creation of my own design before I changed it to Guilmon. What really go me started with this is just I really wanted to do this. This whole project I intended as a love letter to the series and was planning on making it a meshing of the Japanese and American Dub. I finally got around to watching the original dub just this year (I feel like I criminally neglected this) and after watching it... yeah, it's gonna be hard to watch the English Dub again so this is really just going to be following the Japanese dub. (Here's what I've watched already in terms of the Japanese dub: The original pilot of the Greymon/Parrotmon showdown at Hikarigaoka, all of Advenutre, and Our War Game. Haven't watch any of Adventure 02 or .tri in its original form yet.) Don't get me wrong, I love the English dub, it is near and dear to my heart and got me through some pretty rough times. That being said, the original is superior.

Now, I'm getting this all out of the way, this is a self-insert fic, but I tried really hard to not make myself a Marty-Stu per say. I give myself plenty of reasonable flaws and plenty of room to grow as a character so I think I'm safe. But I'll leave all that to you guys for that to be determined. Don't worry, I'm gonna get this out of the way. Guilmon and myself will not be overpowered. Agumon and Gabumon will still be the only ones who can evolve into the Ultimate forms.

One more major thing I want to point out is there will be a lot of references to American culture for two reasons, one that's who I am, I've been referred to as IMDB server. Two, the show itself leaves it open, it takes place in our world of 1999. Episode 21: Koromon, the Great Clash in Tokyo!, Taichi is drinking a Coca-Cola and there's a bottle of Kraft Parmesan Cheese in the refrigeration cabinet! Believe me, it's hard to keep these references dated.

Also, some thanks to the translation group Ryuu-Rogue for providing the English subtitles, they really helped me out.

Finally, I'll just say this once, I do not own Digimon and never will.

So without further ado, I present my masterpiece (Or disasterpiece if you think it), Sweat, Tears, and Evolutions: My Digimon Adventure!

* * *

 **Prologue**

" _What you've heard from me was the truth. I wouldn't tell you if it wasn't. Would I?"  
-Clyde Blackburn, Battlefield 1_

 _McGlathery Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. December 31th, 2016. 0917 Hours._

A man once said 'There's no such thing as monsters.' Well, I believe that man would've changed his mind if he ever saw the things I saw. Most people are afraid of war, me on the other hand, I'm not. I've seen stuff that most solders could never even dream of. I've stared death in the face and came out of nightmares with my sanity intact. My name is Ross McGlathery, a captain in the United States Marine Corps. My story is one that many would think it was a product of my crazed imagination. Well, it's not. Everything I'm about to say is all true.

I was born in Corpus Christi, Texas on May 18, 1988. My parents were Phillip, a Lieutenant in United States Navy, and Sharon. My father was probably the main reason why I wanted to join the Armed Forces. As for my mother, she was the sweetest person you'd ever meet, practically an angel on Earth. My family and I were always godly folks; my grandfather on my dad's side of the family was a pastor at a Church of Christ in a small town in West Texas, though we were a bit more progressive than others. We were city folks, not crazy backwoods rednecks. We were middle class but never took anything for granted. The first few years of my life were ones of innocence and happiness.

However, nothing truly lasts forever. When I was 4, tragedy struck. On June 19th, 1992, we were coming home from a late night thing, I don't really remember. It was around eleven o'clock when we came up to a quiet stoplight and we started to come through. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital, my right arm was under bandages and my father in tears. Mom was gone forever. We were hit by a drunk driver who was speeding through the intersection and unfortunately slammed into the right side of our car. I was on the left behind Dad who was driving when I got knocked out. Mom was killed instantly, Dad's leg was cut up pretty bad, and I had some fragments of the window in my arm. I still have the scars to this day. Mom was buried at a small cemetery in Corpus Christi. During the funeral, Dad met the driver's ex-wife. Turned out, the guy had drank his wife, job and life away. It was a shame that my family had to be a part of it too. It was this event that forced me to grow up and realize that this world is full of awful things. I decided to cope with life by using humor. You got to keep laughing because the moment you stop, you realize that this world is terrible.

Soon, I found myself leaving America. In September of 1992, Dad found himself stationed on the USS Shiloh, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. Its homeport was in Yokosuka, Japan, which meant we would be living in north Yokohama, where most of the US sailor's families lived in. That area of Yokohama was called Little New York due to the population of Americans; and to give the sailors the sense of home, most places had English signs with Japanese lettering under them for the locals of the Tokyo area and spoke English. I was starting Kindergarten so I learned Japanese just like other Japanese kids. English was taught as a second language in Japan, that is if people wanted to, like Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the USA. My dad and I always talked in English when we were home while in public we spoke Japanese.

When Dad would find himself away for a while, I needed a place to stay. I would have probably stayed with my Grandfather on my mother's side who lived in Corpus Christi, but he died of cancer in October of '92. With no other living relatives, there weren't very many options. Fortunately, I believe God had a true plan of all this, hell, if not, I would've never been a part of this crazy tale. Growing up, Dad had a true friend: Yagami Susumu. His family was from Japan and lived in Houston, where Dad was born and grew up in. After high school, Susumu moved back to Japan, where he worked and met his wife, Yuuko. Dad always did keep in touch with him. Susumu lived in Hikarigaoka District of the Nerima Ward of Tokyo. So, I found myself living with people I would pretty much call family, and two specific people who I would call my brother and my sister in all but blood.

Yagami Taichi was born on June 15, 1988. He's what I called a great athlete in the making, because he was showing all the signs of being a great player at football (or soccer as Americans called it). I played some soccer too, but I was more for American Football, Baseball and Basketball. Living with Dad meant you had to be Dallas Cowboys fan, no exceptions. I felt lucky to be alive and witness them in the 90s; they won the Super Bowl 3 times ('92, '93, '95; the Triplets era as it was called). Taichi always wore a pair of goggles on his head; it was kind of a rare sight to see him without them. We were in the same grade so we almost always spent time together at the same school we went to. Due to the fact that I spent a lot of time living at the Yagami's, it made sense of why I would call him my brother, at least one in all but blood, because I knew him like one. Taichi wasn't the only child the Yagami's had. Yagami Hikari was born on July 14, 1991, and she was the sweetest and most innocent girl that I ever met. In fact, she reminded me of my mother. Kind of made me think my mother had returned as her. Hikari was practically an angel, never thinking about herself and putting others needs before hers. I guess it wasn't that surprising seeing how Hikari translated to English meant light.

Still, the world doesn't revolve around one person. Dad found himself going to war. Back in 1991, the Soviet Union fell apart and rest of communism would soon follow suit. Fidel Castro, the ruler of Cuba, fearing that without the assistance of the Soviets to keep the US from ousting him, stepped down from power and democracy was restored to the island nation. On April 5, 1994, not wanting to end up like the Soviets or Cuba, Kim Il-sung, who was the tyrannical dictator of North Korea decided to end the ceasefire that the divided Korea had since the '50s. Soon, North Korea was swarming across the border that separated the communist north with its democratic south. Il-sung's hope was that the KPA (Korean People's Army) could quickly overwhelm the South Koreans before the US could respond in full. That proved to be the regime's downfall. South Korea proved to be better equipped with their own equipment than they had a decade before. America soon found itself defending its allies of South Korea. The US responded much quicker than the North had expected. The KPA was stopped right in its tracks only a week after they began their offensive. The KPA had only been able to reach as far Wonju and had not even been able to take Seoul or Incheon. The Shiloh was part of the blockade that kept any North Korean ships bottled up in their ports. On July 8, 1994, Il-sung died and his son, Kim Jong-Il, took over and watched his country fall before the Allied forces. The Korean War that had started in 1950 finally ended on August 12, 1994 with the 2 Koreas reunited under the democratic south.

For the next year, a new threat began to grip Japan in fear. On March 20, 1995, a religious cult group released Sarin nerve gas on the Subways of Tokyo. Thirteen people lost their lives and another thousand people were injured by the terrorist attack. Dad was on shore leave that day and was planning on taking me to Tokyo Disneyland that day and we were gonna take the subway to there, but we overslept. By time we woke up, the subways were closed. We thought we had dodged a bullet. Looking back, that proved to be nothing compared to what both myself and Dad would experience only a few years later. Then, one night on June 21st of the same year, I witnessed a terrorist attack on the highway at Hikarigaoka. At least, I think that's what I saw. I saw the attack from the apartment of a friend of Dad's that we were staying at that night in the Nerima Ward where I could see it with binoculars. When I woke up that day, the Japanese government had said it was a terrorist attack. However, if it was an attack, the people responsible for it did a bad job. I always thought terrorists wanted to cause the most damage and harm to others. The attack caused no casualties; however, the highway was heavily damaged. They never did find the group responsible and no groups were claiming responsibility to it. It was due to this fact that a lot of families left that area due to that close call. The Yagami's were one of them and they moved to the Odaiba District in the Minato Ward. Still, even with the change in location, we still went to the same school.

However, tragedy would come back to haunt me. By 1998, Dad had worked his way up to being the second-in-command of the Shiloh. He was sent out to patrol the seas of Southeast Asia. Things had been getting tense in the region when hardliners of the Communist Party of Vietnam took control of the government. They soon were announcing that they would not tolerate any nations that they did not see eye to eye within their claimed territorial waters and that any trespassing ships would be dealt with. On February 12, 1998, I received a call from the US Navy. Dad was gone. The day before, the Shiloh was attacked by Vietnamese planes and the ship was sunk. I refused to believe he was gone. His body was never found amongst the dead. The captain was one of the dead, found to have been shot by small arms fire, along with some other crewman. Several of the life rafts were found missing, so I assumed that Dad was a prisoner of the Vietnamese Army. Even still, the incident put me in a deep depression that was like when my mother died, I masked it with humor. I don't think anyone truly knew how I was feeling until that fateful summer of '99. America and her allies soon found themselves in Vietnam once more. The attack was declared as an act of war on the United States. Laos and Cambodia, two other communist countries, allied themselves with Vietnam, under the idea that America would repeat the same mistakes as it did in the 60s and 70s, and declared war on the States. Unlike the first Vietnam War in which America lost, they would find themselves winning the conflict. The war had ended on June 2, 1999, when the capital city of Vietnam, Hanoi, fell to allied forces.

With Dad missing, I found myself living with the Yagami's for the next few years. By a stroke of luck, my life turned back around. On my eleventh Birthday, I believed God had sent me a present. Susumu said that the US Navy was on the phone. What they told me, well, I think that was one of the best days of my life. Dad was alive. He found himself beaten and starved during his time at the Hotel Hanoi, one of the worst prison camps in Vietnam. Turned out the Vietnamese had captured most of the crew of the Shiloh. The captain was murdered by the forces that captured the Shiloh crew and Dad became the most senior officer. He helped keep many prisoners alive during that time, and would find himself being awarded the Navy Cross. He didn't come home imminently, he need rest and to get his strength back after being starved, then came the interviews and the medals, so most of the summer was spent waiting for him to come home.

Shortly before he came home, something happened that almost prevented that tearful reunion. Multiple schools in the local area had a summer camp trip and Taichi and I were going like we had the years before. Originally, Hikari would come, but that year, she had a fever the day before we left, so she had to stay home. I always wondered what would have happened had she came with us that year. We were gonna meet up with some old friends there. A friend of ours, well, more Taichi's, but still, was gonna meet us at camp. Her name was Takenouchi Sora; she and Taichi used to be on a soccer team and stayed friends ever since.

Still, if only any of us knew what was going to happen on that warm day of August 1st…

 _Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. July 31st, 1999. 0552 Hours._

Looking into the mirror, I see the face of a kid brushing his teeth. He looked eleven years old, had a dark shade of red hair which was short, wore glasses, his eyes were a shade of hazel, and was really light skinned. Oh, what am I saying? It's just my reflection! I guess it's just the nerves that come with leaving for a trip. I left the bathroom wearing my white polo shirt and a pair of denim jeans. As I headed towards the kitchen, I noticed Yuuko waiting for me and Taichi.

"Come on, you two. You're gonna be late." Yuuko told Taichi and me.  
"Well, I'm ready, Yuuko-san. It's just Taichi is the one who is taking forever." I responded.  
"Hey! Calm down, Ross. I'm almost ready!" shouted Taichi from his room.  
"Taichi, you don't need to bring 2 of the same outfit." said Yuuko.  
"Come on, Mom. I really like this outfit."  
"My answer is no. Now, just leave it."  
"Fine." Taichi said in defeat.

Just like Taichi. Always wait to the last moment when it comes to packing. He's never like this when it comes to his homework. Maybe he does it so he can have more free time. I know I do. The bus is down at the apartment entrance and is waiting for those who are coming to summer camp, and Taichi might make us late! Taichi came out of his room holding his suitcase which was filled with his clothes and some other items. As for me, I was looking like I was ready to move. I had a heavy backpack, a suitcase that all my clothes were in, and a duffel bag that was caring my Nintendo 64 and the games to it.

While I was waiting in the living room for Taichi to come out of his room, I took a look at the table where the phone was. The Yagami's always kept their family photos right next to them. The first photo was one that the Yagami's took at the beginning of the year. It was Susumu and Yuuko with Taichi and Hikari beneath them and I was a bit off to the side. The next photo was the Yagami's wedding photo with Dad as Susumu's best man. The third one was the one that was taken during last Halloween of Taichi, Hikari, and I dressed as Lock, Shock, and Barrel from _**Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas**_ , with me as Lock, Taichi as Barrel, and Hikari as Shock. I really had some fun that night especially since we all sang _'Kidnap the Sandy Claws'_. Hearing Hikari singing about beating Santa with a stick was so opposite to her personality. The next photo was one that was taken back in the summer of '97 that showed Dad in his naval uniform with me at his side. The last one was the one that always made me sad. It was a picture of Mom and Dad with me in the middle when I was six months old. Not a day goes by where I don't wonder what would've happened if she had lived.

Taichi came out his room wearing his usual outfit. He had his blue shirt that had the orange stars on the shoulders. He was also wearing his favorite pair of sneakers and some brown shorts. Lastly, he had his white gloves that he always liked to wear. Ms. Yagami was waiting at the door with Hikari beside her. She still looked like she was sick. She was just standing there in her pajamas, with a disappointed look on her face.

"I'm sorry I can't come with you guys."  
"It's okay, Hikari. I wish you could come too, but you're not feeling good. If you came, I'm sure you wouldn't have any fun while you have that fever." I told Hikari. Hikari came down with a fever yesterday and was still not feeling good, so she was gonna have to miss summer camp.  
"Don't worry, Hikari. I'll bring you back a souvenir, okay?" said Taichi.  
"Alright. Thanks, Onii-chan. You're the best."  
"Don't forget to tell your grandparents I said 'Hi', okay Hikari?" I told her. The rest of the Yagamis were going to visit Yuuko's parents who lived further north of town.  
"I will, Ross-chan."  
"Well, are you guys ready?" asked Yuuko.  
"Yes, ma'am." Taichi and I said at the same time.  
"Okay. Hikari, go back to bed, sweetie. Have fun, you two."  
"Thanks, Mom. We will!" Taichi confidently told Yuuko.

We left the apartment and headed straight to the bus stop where our bus was waiting for us. It was a large bus that would look like a Greyhound bus back in America. However, this was just the local school bus. It makes sense, seeing how most of the students have a large load to carry, even in the school year. We got on and went to different seats. Taichi went to the back to talk with some friends of his. I sat next to another one of my friends. He was wearing a black AC/DC shirt and a pair of black shorts (American culture was pretty popular in Japan). He had short black hair and dark green eyes. His name was Juruichi Takeo; he was in the same class as me and was saving a seat.

"What are you doing, Ross? Moving?" teased Takeo.  
"Ha, ha, ha." I responded sarcastically. "Very funny, Takeo. Can you give me a hand?"  
"Sure." Takeo then helped place some of my luggage in the overhead bins above our seat.  
"Well? You excited, Ross?" asked Takeo with a hint of sarcasm. He was always one to be a cynic but when the chips are down, he'd be there for me.  
"I don't know. I'm still really tired. I had to wake up at 4 in the morning. I'm gonna go back to sleep." I told him. I'm not that used to waking up this early. I already had a snack and a shower, and yet I'm still tired.  
"Fine, I'll wake you when we get there, ok?" Takeo promised me.  
"Alright. Thanks."

Despite all the other people talking, I was able to fall asleep. It was a long trip to the camp because the buses were gonna fight morning traffic and still had to pick up some other students. It was around 9 o'clock by the time we got to the camp.

"Hey, man. Wake up." Takeo told me. Didn't need to jab me in the side with his elbow, I was already up for the past 5 minutes.  
"Yea, I'm up, man. What is it?" I asked him.  
"We're here."  
"Thanks."  
"Camp looks nice this year, doesn't it?"  
"Looks kind of the same as last year."  
"Alright! Every one off of the bus and line up outside!" said one of the teachers who was organizing this trip. We hopped off the bus with our stuff and lined up in front it. People were being assigned to their following cabins by the teachers. It felt like forever before my name got called.  
"Here are the people that will be in Cabin 12! The names are as listed: Yagami, Kido, Ishida, Tachikawa, McGlathery, Takaishi, Takenouchi, and Izumi! All of you head to Cabin 12! I repeat: Yagami, Kido, Ishida, Tachikawa, McGlathery, Takaishi, Takenouchi, and Izumi! Cabin 12 will be where you stay at!" announced the teacher.

Talk about luck. Sora, Taichi, and myself were all gonna be in the same cabin. We spent the rest of the day going through rules, doing some activities, and eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One of the activities was involving wood working, where things got a little hectic. A young kid had nearly cut off one of the fingers on a student; his pinky finger to be exact. Thankfully, the blade missed by a few inches, but the kid refused to go back inside the wood working building until it was over. By dusk, we were cleaning up and heading to our cabins. I had put on my white t-shirt and placed my #8 Troy Aikman Dallas Cowboys jersey on top of it. I had my dog tags and my cross around my neck underneath the shirt and jersey. I put my wallet in my tan cargo shorts and put on my wide-receiver gloves. Taichi and I were the first in there and we spent some time trying to hook up the 64 to the TV that was in the cabin. We got to see if it worked by putting in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, a favorite of mine, and played it for a few minutes. Soon everyone else was in the cabin and unpacking their bags. No one was really talking so I decided to break the ice and meet everyone.

"Alright. I guess we're all here, so I think we should introduce ourselves. I'm McGlathery Ross. I was born on May 18, 1988, and I'm in the fifth grade."  
"Pleased to meet you, Ross." said the kid in the green sleeveless shirt. He looked like he was the same age as Taichi and had a similar kind of hair cut but his hair was blond. He had on a pair of dark denim jeans and wore some dark brown gloves. "My name is Ishida Yamato. I was born on July 3, 1988, and I attend the fifth grade." He then motioned his hands to the boy beside him who was wearing a green helmet that covered his blond hair and was probably the same age as Hikari. It was the same kid who had nearly cut off the other kid's finger in wood shop earlier during the day and he was in our cabin as well. He had on a dark green jacket that was sleeveless but wore a light green long sleeve underneath it. "This here is Takeru."

"Hi. I'm Takaishi Takeru. I was born on July 21, 1991, and I'm in the second grade. Although, I don't go to Odaiba but rather Kawada Elementary."  
"Well, I guess I'll go next. I'm Takenouchi Sora. I was born on February 27, 1988, and I'm in the fifth grade, too." Sora was wearing her blue beanie that hid her light red hair. She was wearing a sleeveless yellow shirt and some light blue jeans. She also had on her favorite pair of red gloves that she had when playing soccer with Taichi.  
"Nice to meet you, Sora. It's so nice to have another girl in this cabin." said the other girl in this cabin, she was wearing this large pink cowboy hat that shaded her long brown hair and looked really excited. I'd admit; she actually looked kind of cute in that hat. She was wearing a dark red outfit and light brown gloves. "I'm Tachikawa Mimi. I was born on January 18, 1989 and I'm in the fourth grade."  
"I guess it's my turn. I'm Yagami Taichi. I was born on June 15, 1988, and I'm in the fifth grade."

"Guess I should go next, huh. I'm Kido Jou. I was born on April 5, 1987, and I'm a student in the sixth grade." He said nervously. His hair was a blue color that he clearly put dyes it in, and was wearing his light blue button shirt underneath his tan cardigan. He was also the only other person in this cabin to wear glasses as well.  
"Hey, you. Kid on the computer! What's your name?" Taichi asked the kid was on his laptop computer. He had dark red hair like mine but he kept his hair up that looked kind of like Taichi and Yamato's styles. He wore an orange dress shirt and had on bright yellow gloves. How he was typing on that computer with those on, I had no idea.  
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I should be respectful and introduce myself as well. My name is Izumi Koushiro. My birth date is September 14, 1989, and I'm a part of the fourth grade. It's nice to meet all of you."

"It's very nice to make your acquaintance as well, Koushiro. But, why are you here? You look like you belong more in a computer camp." Jou said to Koushiro.  
"Well, that was my original plan, but my parents thought it would be better for me to go to camp here instead."  
"I know the feeling. I wanted to go to summer school, but my parents made me come." Jou responded.  
"Who would want to go to summer school if they didn't need too?" Mimi asked the group, more specifically, the question sounded like it was meant for Jou.

For the next few hours we found ourselves talking to each other. Taichi, Yamato, Takeru and I played on the 64, and we played some Super Smash Bros. and some Goldeneye. I'm really good at games, but once Takeru got the Golden Gun in Goldeneye, it was over for us. Kid was unstoppable. Takeru was also pretty good at Rogue Squadron. He was able to get a couple of bronze medals for the missions that he played. He really showed his colors during the third mission: The Search for the Nonnah. He got a gold medal for that one. He was flying circles around those TIE Interceptors. I gave him the nickname 'Rogue Five' just for laughs after that. I gave everyone a designation for any of my friends who played Rogue Squadron. Taichi was 'Rogue Four', Hikari was 'Rogue Two' and Takeo was 'Rogue Six'. It was right around 10 o'clock before we all headed to bed. I then quickly and quietly prayed to God for blessing and to protect those who I care about, and then I got under the covers. Before I went to sleep, I was wondering what tomorrow would have in store. Then I fell to sleep.

 _Summer Camp, 50 Kilometers Northwest of Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 0650 Hours._

I woke up at about 6:14 in the morning. Everyone was still asleep so I pulled my portable CD player out of my backpack and put on my big, custom headphones. They were custom because I painted the Rebel Alliance Emblem on the sides, proving how much of a Star Wars geek I was. I then looked in my backpack to see what I should listen to. I had a lot of CD's. Some were soundtracks, others were compilations albums. I was beginning to think that may have brought too much.

I decided to head down to the mess hall and get some breakfast if they had any. I was actually surprised to find not only there was food ready but also a few students as well. And of course one of them I recognized easily.

"I should've guessed you'd be up the moment you smelt food, Takeo." I said to Takeo after getting some food and walking towards his table.  
"Not my fault I got placed in the tent next to the mess hall while your cabin is the furthest away." He responded with a smirk while he continued eating. I quickly sighed and sat down across from him at the table.  
"Sleep good last night?" Takeo asked me.  
"Eh, about as good as I usually do."  
"So, not much right?"  
"I can never really lie to you, eh?"  
"Ross, I can understand the whole not sleeping that great while your dad was missing, but he's been found now and is in good health if I had to guess. After all, he's coming home isn't he?"  
"Yeah, he is. But until I fully see him with my own eyes, I'm gonna keep up the rough sleeping."  
"I swear, it's like you have like some sort of split personality? One minute you can be all stand-up comedian and the next you're all serious."  
"I'm sure I don't have a split. I'm just quick to change moods, I guess." I didn't want to bother him with my whole depression. I rather deal with that myself.  
"Whatever. Hey! I heard yesterday was pretty crazy! Is it true that a kid nearly got his hand cut off?"  
"Two things. One, it was just his pinkie, and two, funny enough, the two of them are in my cabin."  
"Wow. Care to rat the boy out?"  
"Well, I would but I'd rather not after how good he proved himself in Rogue Squadron."  
"Really? He did better than me?"  
"Hey, you're just as good at the game as anyone else. Takeru just did better than you."  
"Takeru? How old is he?"  
"He's in the second Grade."  
"OH! I got showed up by a second Grader! This is even worse than before." He yelled, practically the entire mess hall looked in our direction thanks to the outburst Takeo gave.  
"Lay off the theatrics, Takeo."  
"Sorry."  
"Hey, Takeo. Check out the TV behind ya." I said to Takeo while pointing to the TV in the mess hall that was behind him. He turned around and we both managed to catch the closing statements of the local news broadcast before it went to commercial.  
"And the continual drought in Southeast Asia continues to ravage the rice fields of a war recovering region. In the meanwhile, record lows are being reported in the all over the United States in cities like Chicago and New York. And our final report, floods are still occurring in the low land regions of Jordan and Iraq. I'm Shichirou Mikami with Channel 5 News, 'The Voice of Tokyo'."  
"Man, Southeast Asia is a mess. Hard for them to recover from the war with this drought going on."  
"Yea, I know what you mean, Ross. Well, I'm gonna head back to my cabin. See you later." Takeo said while he was getting up from the table.  
"Yea, see you around." I then proceeded to eat the rest of my food in peace, though I kinda wished Taichi was up or Hikari was here. It was never truly a dull moment when they were around.

After I finished eating, I went back to the cabin to find everyone still asleep. I got my headphones and started listing to my music till everyone started to wake up. Taichi got up first and went outside. He then proceeded to climb up a tree and fell back asleep. I had a feeling he may have stayed up a little longer the night before. Soon, everyone else was waking up and they decided to go their separate ways. Jou told me he was gonna take a walk up the trail. Koushiro was sitting on the cabin porch on his laptop computer. The others were basically in the general area around the cabin. I decided to take an early morning run on the trail. I passed by Jou and kept going.

Then, things got weird. I was a good 200 yards away from the cabin when the unthinkable happened. It started to snow! Snowing in the middle of summer! As soon as saw a few snowflakes, I turned around and ran straight back to the cabin. I ran into Jou and told him to get everyone. We soon gathered everyone and noticed the rest of the camp was doing the same thing. The snowstorm started to pick up and we soon found ourselves in the cabin holding out through the storm.

If only we knew what was to come next for all of us…

* * *

And that was the prologue... what do you think?

My main plan is to try to crank out a chapter every two days. Right now I've got the first two episodes finished and third one underway. Today is the 10th of May, 2018, so tonight, I will be going to the theater to watch the English Dub for the 5th .tri movie, Determination. After that, I might just binge the original .tri to see how it ends or just wait until Sept. 20th for the sixth dub in theaters.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review. (Though make your reviews more than one sentence, this isn't YouTube so you don't get to comment more than once, and I'll try to answer any questions come the next chapter.)

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	2. Adrift? The Island of Adventure!

Alright. Now we really get started with this story. Apologies for how rough and exposition-y the prologue was but I didn't feel really comfortable going head in without some of a back story.

I originally was gonna upload this on Sunday, May 12th, 2018 but I decided to move up the time table a bit. I just saw the English dub of tri. Coexistence (not Determination, my bad) and just got into the uploading mood.

Another thing I want to mention is that the story cover picture was a commissioned piece done by the amazingly talented JubiaMaJo on Deviantart. Seriously, she is great at making screen caps so well, you'd think it was done by the original animators.

Finally, I'd like to say thank you to WhiteTigerMisty for being the first follower of this story. Thank you so much.

Now, then, on with the show!

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Adrift? The Island of Adventure!**

 _Summer Camp, 50 Kilometers Northwest of Tokyo, Japan. August 1_ _st_ _, 1999. 0736 Hours._

It was about a good thirty minutes before the storm finally stopped. Looking out the window, the camp looked like a winter wonderland. Approximately, a good three inches of snow fell and blanked the area. Man, this cannot be good for the local plants. We tried to turn on the TV to get a local weather report, but all we got was static. Maybe the dish signal was blocked by all the snow. We tried another method by using the laptop. Koushiro was unable to connect to the internet and be able to get a weather report. Takeru tried to pass the time by playing the N64, but just like everything else, we got static. That was the weird one; the 64 didn't need a dish or internet, so why was it not working? It was at this point Taichi got fed up staying in the cabin and decided to look out the door.

"It looks like it finally stopped." Taichi said. I quickly walked up behind him.  
"Good lord. That looks about a good three to four inches." I replied. Taichi turned his head around to look at me with a smirk on his face.  
"You know what that means?"  
"Uh, it's safe to assume that the canoe races will have to be canceled?" I questioned. As soon as I said that, Taichi began to sprint out the door.  
"Yeah, so let's have toboggan races instead!"  
"Snow! This is so awesome! I'm gonna build the biggest snowman!" Takeru shouted as he ran under my arm that was blocking the exit.  
"Hey, Takeru! Be careful! Sorry, Ross." Yamato apologized as he did exactly what Takeru did.  
"Why is everyone going through me? Do I not exist?" I asked aloud.  
"No, you're here, Ross." Sora assured me as I got out of the door way on to the cabin porch. "Brrr. It's freezing! Hard to believe it's summer."  
"Okay, I suggest we hurry back to center of camp where the adults are. The longer we stay here..." Jou suggested as he followed close behind before Mimi ran up beside him.  
"Wow! It's so pretty! Oh, I had the perfect pair of pink snow boots for this weather." Mimi said as both she and Jou got outside. I looked over my shoulder to see that Koushiro was still on his Mac PowerBook, not making much progress with it.  
"Not good. I thought I'd get reception after the storm died down, but still nothing."  
"Hey! Koushiro! Ross! Come out and look at this!" Taichi yelled. Both Koushiro and I followed suit and walked outside to the hillside see what Taichi wanted.

As it turns out, the thing that he wanted us to see was this large band of rainbow-colored lights shining in the sky. All of us were taken aback of the strange but magnificent sight.  
"Beautiful! So magical!" Mimi awed.  
"It's an aurora!" Sora said.  
"This is my first time seeing one!" Taichi responded.  
"And for good reason. You're referring to Aurora Borealis, the northern lights. Something that can only be seen in Alaska. How can there be an aurora in Japan?" Koushiro informed.  
"Tell that to the weather we've been having." I told him.  
"We really should get back to where the adults are before we come down with something." Jou insisted.  
"Yeah, it wouldn't be cool if we got sick..." Yamato countered.

As soon as he said that, the lights slowly faded a bit to reveal a green swirling vortex in the sky.  
"Hey, what's that?" Taichi questioned. No answer was given as a bright light began shining in the center before eight bright lights began to trail in a downward pattern right towards us.  
"INCOMING!" I shouted, hoping everyone would take my advice and take cover as best as they can. The lights impact the ground all around us hard and threw up snow and dust, blinding our vision; or in my case, throwing me on my back. After a few moments, the dust began to settle.  
"Is everyone all right?" Sora questioned.  
"Yeah, somehow." Yamato replied while helping Takeru up.  
"That was scary." Mimi said, holding tight to her hat.  
"Wh-What was that?" Jou asked.  
"Can I get some help?" I shouted, still flat on my back before Taichi gave me his hand and helped pull me up. "Geez, what was that? A mortar strike?"

Koushiro was crawling towards the mysterious objects that were buried deep in the snow.  
"A meteorite?" He wondered. I almost wanted to quote _**The Empire Strikes Back**_ as it was almost the perfect time to say, but Taichi shook his head at me, knowing exactly what I was thinking. Soon the holes lit up and slowly rising from them were these strange looking things. They were a light blue, slightly octane shaped device. It had a black shortened antenna-looking thing on the top left of it, a large gray screen in the middle, three blue buttons; one large round button on the left of the screen and two smaller oval shaped buttons on the right. Wrapped around the screen, there were lots of strange symbols and it even looked like it had a clip on the back of the device that one could clip it to their person. Each of us quickly grabbed the objects that fitted in our palms; not at all hot to the touch.  
"What… are these?" Sora questioned the object in her hand.  
"Well, they're neither a pager nor a cell phone…" Koushiro muttered before the gray screens began to glow a green color.

Soon, our attention was turned elsewhere as a giant tidal wave rose over the hill, on course to crash right into us. It was far too late to get out of the way as the wave slammed right into the hill and dragged us underneath its waves. However, instead of the feeling of being drowned with water filling up my lungs, I felt as if I was falling from the sky. I could tell that was what the others were experiencing as I could hear their screams crying out. Soon, I witnessed a bright spectrum of color and light before I fell unconscious.

 _Location Unknown. Date Unknown. Time Unknown._

I felt a soft breeze against my cheeks as I began to regain consciousness. My eyelids felt heavy as they were trying hard to defy my impulses to open them and let my eyesight see the surrounding area. I felt myself turn over on my side, feeling the hard ground underneath my body. My eyelids opened slowly as to gradually let my eyes adjust to the light, and slightly thankful to feel that I was still wearing my glasses. Whether the lenses were still intact was another story. As I opened my eyes, they quickly widened as I soon found myself looking at the last thing I'd ever thought I'd expect.

Standing right in front of my face was the strangest thing that I had ever seen. It was a small looking creature with red skin, except on its belly which was white, and had short, stubby legs. It had a tail that was also red with the tip covered in black. It had two red objects on the top of it that looked similar to bat wings. Finally, it had large yellow eyes with little black triangles on its skin beneath the eyes and a wide smile on its face.

My first instinct was to scream, but thanks to a lot of animal books and documentaries, I knew startling it would be a bad idea. I slowly began to pick myself off of the ground while the little creature just remained right where it was while still holding that big smile on its face. I looked up to see myself no longer in the forests of Japan but rather a dense and weird looking jungle. I honestly can't tell if I'm dreaming right now, so I quickly gave myself a pinch on the neck to make sure. I feel the pinch and I don't wake up again. Yeah, it's really happening.

"Great." I groaned. "Somehow, that wave washed me out into the middle of a jungle and I got a really happy creature staring at me. This day just keeps getting weirder." I look over to see a fallen tree on the ground and sat down on it. I then rubbed my temples before looking away from the creature. "Now I only wish I knew where I was, and exactly who you are, little critter."

"I'm Gigimon." It said. My eyes widened so fast and I cranked my neck just as quick to look back at the thing that I almost gave myself whiplash.  
"Di- did you just talk?" I questioned, hardly believing it.  
"Yep, I was getting kind of worried you wouldn't wake up, Ross."  
"Wait? How the heck do you know my name?"  
"I'm just so happy that you're finally here!" He said, with a voice that sounded like he would be perfect to play Oliver Twist in a British theater production of the play.  
"What do you mean by 'finally here'? Have you been vaccinated yet?" All he could do was just laugh as he jumped into my arms. He caught me off guard but I was able to catch him.  
"This is so great! Just so very great!" He chuckled.  
"Just what the hell is going on?" I exasperated and picked up my backpack that was lying next to the tree, before the silence was broken by an all too familiar scream.  
"Wait a second… That's Taichi!" I shouted as I ran towards the noise with Gigimon in my arms.

It took about what felt like fifteen seconds before I found Taichi standing in a clearing, looking fine… except for the creature he was holding in his hands. It was a round, pink creature, with two long antenna looking things on its head and large red eyes.  
"Taichi! Thank god you're okay!" I exclaimed.  
"Ross! Am I glad to see you- and you have another one of those things as well." He said noticing Gigimon in my arms.  
"Yeah, so do you. This little guy calls himself Gigimon, I take it that creature is similar as well?" I asked, mostly directed more to Gigimon than Taichi.  
"You're right, Ross. That's my good friend, Koromon." Gigimon answered.  
'Jeez, just what on Earth is going on right now?" Taichi questioned.  
"I don't really know, but what I do know is that we ain't in Kansas anymore." I said.

"Ross-san! Taichi-san!" A voice calls out. We turn around to see Koushiro on the edge of the clearing.  
"Oh, Koushiro!" Taichi replies.  
"Thank goodness, I thought I was all alone here." He said, with a somewhat worried look on his face. As soon as he finished, another stranger creature waddled up beside him. It was a pink squishy-looking creature with no legs and two small arms that had three short claws. His last feature was his big brown eyes.  
"What are you saying? I'm right here with you." It said, replying to Koushiro's comment. Taichi immediately dropped Koromon upon seeing the new creature.  
"Koushiro! Wh- Who is that?!" Taichi demanded. The little guy hopped forward a couple of feet into the clearing.  
"I'm called Mochimon. Nice to mee'cha." He then took a quick bow in respect.  
"He's been following me around ever since I woke up here." Koushiro explained. "I have no idea what's going on…" Welcome to the club, Koushiro.  
"This place? What is this place called?" Taichi asked while taking a good look of the surrounding area.  
"This is File Island." Mochimon declared.  
"That's right! File Island." Koromon added.  
"Well, we have a name, but not a real location." I brought up.  
"Yeah, that's what they say, but…" Koushiro trailed off.  
"Hmm. We should check this place out." Taichi said. Taichi soon led us to a nearby tree that rose high over the jungle canopy.

"What do you think, Ross?" Taichi asked me.  
"Good height, give you a great vantage point. Just be careful, alright?"  
"Hey, aren't I always?" He then proceeded to climb up the large tree.  
"Said the same thing at his family reunion three years ago; climbs up a tree, falls out, breaks his arm, wears a sling for two weeks." I mentioned to Koushiro. Taichi reaches the top and pulls his small telescope out of his pocket and begins looking around.  
"Huh, there's the ocean. We weren't near that at camp. And I don't remember seeing mountains like those before… Where are we?" Koromon quickly hops up the tree using his antennas as arms to assist his movement.  
"Hey, Taichi, what'cha doin'?" The little pink creature asked.  
"Huh? Well… Hey! What's that?" He notices a red flying bug in the distance. "Is that a red… stag beetle?" He saw it coming closer until he realized it was gigantic and both he and Koromon ducked as the giant beetle cut through the entire top of the tree!  
"TAICHI!" I yelled as both I and Koushiro followed the beetle's flight path with Mochimon and Gigimon cowering in fear.  
"Oh no! That's Kuwagamon! He's an atrocious Digimon!" Mochimon shouted.  
"What?!" Koushiro questioned as the giant bug turned around for another pass.  
"Kuwagamon is an Insect-type Digital Monster! His Scissor Arms have the ability to rip through anything as if it was thread!" Gigimon explained.  
"That's just great." I replied as Kuwagamon dived on Taichi and Koromon once again. Koromon leapt off the tree and blew pink bubbles out of his mouth that hit the bug in the face. However, it appears that it had little effect as Koromon was just knocked out of the way before the beetle slammed into the tree throwing Taichi out of it as he landed on the ground. "Taichi! You okay?" I asked.  
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, amazingly not injured from being thrown from such a height. Koromon landed hard right behind us which got us to turn around to see the injured little guy. "Koromon!" Taichi said with concern. He quickly went over and picked him up. "You idiot! Don't be so reckless."  
"Taichi…"  
"But thanks for saving my life there." Koromon flashed a quick smile.  
"Taichi…"  
"Taichi! Kuwagamon is heading towards us again!" Koushiro announced. I swear, this bug is persistent!  
"This is bad! This way! Follow me!" Mochimon insisted. Taichi and I picked up our respective friends and the five of us followed the legless blob with Kuwagamon hot on our tail.

We followed Mochimon to a large tree before he motioned towards us.  
"In here!" He said before he jumped right through the tree as if it wasn't there. We stopped for a second before Taichi grabbed Koushiro's wrist and dragged him into the tree with me close behind.  
"Let's go!" Taichi declared as we jumped through into the tree. Upon inside inspection, the tree was completely hallow and metallic looking.  
"This place projects a hologram of a tree on the outside…" Koushiro explains.  
"All of you! Get down and stay quiet!" I ordered, as we got on our knees and cover our heads in the 'Duck and Cover' position. We stayed like this for what felt like a minute until we didn't hear the giant bug's wings buzzing. I motioned my finger to my mouth in a 'Shhhh' gesture, just in case.

"It's all right now!" A female voice called out. We took the voice's advice and walked out to find Sora waiting for us with another one of these creatures next to her. It looked like a plant crossed with a radish and had large green eyes.  
"Sora! Boy, are we glad to see you." I said.  
"That was a close one, huh?"  
"No way, it wasn't anything serious." Taichi bragged as I shook my head with a smile on my face. We quickly stepped out of the tree back into the small clearing. "Huh?" Taichi noticed the creature.  
"Sounds like Kuwagamon has gone far away, Sora." The creature said.  
"Okay. Thanks, Pyocomon." Sora gratified.  
"Pyocomon?" Taichi asked.  
"She looks like a plant but also…" Koushiro trailed off as we looked back towards Koromon, Mochimon and Gigimon. "One of them?" A rustle was made in a nearby bush as another creature came out of it. It was similar to Gigimon, except it was completely white, it's antenna were similar to Koromon, black doll-like eyes, and lacked a tail. "Th-That one too?"

"Over here, Takeru!" The creature called out. On cue, Takeru popped out from behind a tree and began running over to us.  
"Tokomon!" Takeru shouted. Yamato appeared close behind him with an orange and cream furred, browned eye creature in his arms. The creature also had a large blade looking horn on top of his head.  
"Yamato! You too!?" Taichi asked.  
"Taichi, you were all here?" The blonde responded.  
"No, we were referring to that thing you're holding." I said.  
"Oh, this guy?"  
"I'm Tsunomon." The creature introduced himself. We quickly looked over to see Tokomon and Takeru rubbing their faces against each other. Takeru looked like a little kid who had just gotten a puppy, which in a way I guess is exactly what happened.  
"Tokomon!" Takeru giggled.

Less than a moment later, a blood-curdling scream broke the silence. If I had to hazard a guess, it was Jou screaming and he had one of those critters following him. Sure enough, coming from the bushes was exactly that as Jou ran towards us in a full panic.  
"GUYS! HELP ME!" He shouted before he stopped in exhaustion. "Some weird thing is chasing me!"  
"I'm not a weird thing." A voice said, as a gray seal looking creature put himself on Jou's shoulder. It had only two flippers, blue eyes, and an orange Mohawk. "I'm Pukamon." Jou's response was just to scream again as he looked towards up before he looked at the creatures.  
"Wh-? More of them? What the heck are you guys?!" Jou asked. Pukamon jumped off of his shoulder to join the others.  
"We're… Digimon! Digital Monsters!" The seven of them declared.  
"Digital Monsters?" Taichi questioned. The Digimon could only giggle in response.

"Okay, I think we should probably properly introduce ourselves. Why don't you guys start?" Sora suggested.  
"Alright! I'm Koromon."  
"I'm Tsunomon."  
"I'm Pyocomon. So nice to meet all of you."  
"I'm Mochimon."  
"I'm Pukamon."  
"Gigimon's the name."  
"Tokomon's my name."  
"Pleased to meet ya. I'm Yagami Taichi, a fifth grader in Odiaba Elementary. This is Sora, who's in the same grade."  
"I'm Takenouchi Sora. Nice to meet you all."  
"This is Yamato, another fifth grader."  
"I'm Ishida Yamato."  
"Over there is Jou."  
"Kido Jou. I'm in sixth grade."  
"This is Ross, he's in the fifth grade."  
"McGlathery Ross, a Southern living in Japan."  
"Koushiro from the fourth grade."  
"I'm Izumi Koushiro."  
"And this is, uh…"  
"Takeru. Takaishi Takeru. I'm a second grader."  
"Okay! That's everyone, right?" Taichi finished.

"Wait! I'm sure there was another one with us…" Sora added.  
"Mimi-san! Tachikawa Mimi-san isn't here!" Koushiro remembered.  
"Oh yeah, Mimi-kun from the fourth grade! There's something I have to give her…" Jou explained. Suddenly we heard a female screaming, more than likely that was Mimi. We ran towards where we thought we heard her voice and came across a very large clearing. Mimi came along from a different path with a Digimon in tow. Beside her was a Digimon that resembled Tsunomon except it didn't have orange fur but green skin. It had red eyes, walked on four small paws, and had something of a plant on its head.  
"Mimi-chan!" "Mimi-kun!" We called out and stopped… only to discover she was being pursued by Kuwagamon.  
"It's Kuwagamon!" Koushiro called out. The bug flew right over our heads before he flew back into the tree line.  
"Mimi, are you okay?" The plant-looking Digimon asked Mimi.  
"Oh, Tanemon…" Mimi exasperated as Sora quickly walked over to her.  
"Hang in there." She said.  
"Oh, Sora-san." Mimi responded. I quickly looked up to see Kuwagamon making yet another run.

"He's coming back around for another strike!" I shouted.  
"Get up and run!" Sora yells. We all got moving once again, hearing trees being torn down behind us as the insect Digimon closes in on us.  
"Get down!" Yamato demands and we all follow suit as Kuwagamon soars past us again.  
"Wha-What is this?!" Jou cried out as a tree branch landed right next to him, causing him to snap. "WHAT KIND OF A PLACE IS THIS!?"  
"Here he comes again!" Pyocomon informed.  
"Damn it! I'm not gonna let myself get beaten by him! No more running away!" Taichi declared.  
"Taichi, don't! What else can we do?" Sora suggested.  
"She's right. We have no weapons to fight that thing!" Yamato pointed out.  
"There's no choice but to run away!" Koushiro said.  
"Come on, Taichi. There's no shame in surviving." I told him, hoping it would get through to him.

It appeared he took the advice as he groaned in anger before we got up to run again. We found ourselves continually moving for a good few minutes before we ended up near the edge of a cliff. It looks like we backed ourselves into a wall. Taichi walked over to the edge to see what was below only to find that it was a long drop.  
"It's a dead end! We're gonna have to find another way around!" He told us.  
"Another way where?" Sora asked only for Kuwagamon to burst from the trees and turn around to attack Taichi. "Look out!" Koromon quickly jumped pass Taichi as he was running back to us and launched another bubble attack... only for the same result as before as the beetle slammed him to the ground.  
"Koromon!" Taichi called out. After that, all the other Digimon jumped into action and launched their own bubble attacks as well, only to be swatted away by the large insect. It seemed that it did something however as Kuwagamon botched his landing and crashed into the trees.

After a few moments of silence, we looked up to see all the Digimon on the ground in pain, with Taichi kneeling right next to Koromon.  
"You moron! How can you be so rash?" He questioned.  
"I… have to protect you, Taichi." The Digimon answered.  
"Koromon…" We all ran up to the respective Digimon that were looking out of us, concerned for their wellbeing even if we barely knew them.  
"Pyocomon…"  
"Tanemon, are you okay?"  
"Mochimon, why did you do that?"  
"Gigimon… why?"  
"Tokomon! Tokomon!"  
"Hang in there, Tsunomon."  
"Pukamon… you…" Jou was interrupted as we heard the incessant clicking of Kuwagamon again as he burst from the smashed trees and clacked his deadly mandibles. The rest of us ran over to Taichi on the cliff edge with our Digimon in hand.

"That thing is still alive?" Taichi said dumbfounded.  
"What? You hoped it snapped its neck on the crash?" I asked. The red beetle was now standing on his hind legs and was walking slowly over to us, all of us gripped in fear of what came next.  
"Damn it… at this rate..."  
"I have to go." Koromon told Taichi. "We have to fight!"  
"What are you talking about?!"  
"He's right! That's why we've waited so long…" Mochimon proclaimed.  
"No way!" Koushiro responded.  
"I'm going." Pyocomon declared.  
"Don't be absurd!" Sora countered. "Even if you work together, you won't be able to beat him!"  
"But we have to fight!" Tsunomon yelled trying to jump out of Yamato's arms.  
"Me too!" Tokomon added, doing the same thing in Takeru's arms.  
"And me!" Pukamon shouted with Jou barely holding on to him.  
"Let me at him!" Gigimon insisted. I had to admire his courage, he was certainly gung-ho to fight.  
"Tanemon, you too?" Mimi asked with the plant Digimon who could only nod.  
"Here we go!" Koromon said as he finally escaped Taichi's grip. The rest of the Digimon followed suit and hopped towards the towering insect.

"Pyocomon!"  
"Mochimon!"  
"Tsunomon!"  
"Tokomon!"  
"Gigimon!"  
"Pukamon!"  
"Tanemon!"  
"KOROMON!"

Suddenly the Digimon stopped their advance and stood in a line in front of the beast. We quickly heard a strange activation sound and looked up to see a black swirling vortex. From the center, a beam of rainbow light shot from it before splitting into eight different beams that covered and engulfed the Digimon. What happened next… was beyond belief.  
"Koromon, Evolve! AGUMON!" Standing now in Koromon's place was an orange dinosaur with green eyes.  
"Pyocomon, Evolve! PIYOMON!" Pyocomon was now a pink bird with a metal ring around her left ankle.  
"Mochimon, Evolve! TENTOMON!" Tentomon was a green eyed, mechanized looking ladybug.  
"Gigimon, Evolve! GUILMON!" Gigimon turned into a red dinosaur similar to the now present Agumon.  
"Tsunomon, Evolve! GABUMON!" Gabumon was a reptile-like creature wearing a wolf's pelt with a white blue stripped fun and had a horn sticking out of his head.  
"Tokomon, Evolve! PATAMON!" Patamon looked like a cross between a hamster and a bat with big wings on his head.  
"Pukamon, Evolve! GOMAMON!" Gomamon was now more like an actually seal with the more normal looking orange Mohawk.  
"Tanemon, Evolve! PALMON!" Palmon was a larger plant like creature standing on her hind legs with a flower on top of her head.

"Wh-what just happened?" Taichi asked dumbfounded like the rest of us.  
"Let's get 'im!" Agumon ordered as the new larger Digimon leapt into action. Kuwagamon swatted them away again, but this time they were much quicker to get up.  
"This is nothing!" The orange dinosaur boasted. Kuwagamon began to move his wings in an attempt to take flight again.  
"Poison Ivy!" Palmon shouted as her vines extended until the grabbed ahold of the beetle's leg and dragged him back down.  
"Air Shot!" Patamon filled up with air and shot concentrated burst of air towards the insect Digimon that crashed right into his head.  
"Petit Thunder!" Tentomon fired a beaming of charged lightning from his wings that hit Kuwagamon again. He fell over only for his left foot to slip on Gomamon rolling on the ground which caused him to fall to his knees.  
"Everyone! Stand back!" Agumon warned. "Baby Flame!" He launched a ball of fire from his mouth that hit its target.  
"Petit Fire!" Gabumon fired a blue flame from his mouth.  
"Fireball!" Guilmon launched his own ball of fire from his mouth as well.  
"Magical Fire!" Piyomon unlashed a swirling green fire. All three of the attacks slammed into Kuwagamon; lighting his head ablaze before he shook it off. The Digimon regrouped back up into a V formation.  
"All right. One more time!" Agumon said as the Digimon launched all their attacks at the same time. The combined attack was too much for the beetle as the unarmored part of him under the jaw burst into flames causing him to fall over and collapse in the jungle. All of us kids could only look in awe in the spectacular fight that had just taken place.

"They did it!" Taichi declared. The Digimon quickly turned around and with smiles on their faces; they ran back towards us calling out our names. "That was so cool!" Taichi yelled as he embraced Agumon in a hug. "You're amazing! Great job!" We all congratulated our Digimon on the amazing job they did.  
"How did you like that, Ross?" Guilmon asked, his voice now more of a refined British accent, even if he was still speaking Japanese.  
"That was dead-on accurate. Great shooting!" I praised him. Unfortunately, our praise was cut short as the red beetle rose back up from the trees, and it was safe to assume he was royally pissed now.  
"Taichi!" Sora cried out. Taichi and Agumon turned around and jumped back just as Kuwagamon brought down his giant mandible on the cliff. The impact was so heavy it caused a large crack that snapped the cliff edge off of the cliffside, and sent all of us falling off the cliff and screaming to our doom below… of course that didn't happen as I wouldn't be telling this story.

But while none of us knew it at the time, this would be the shortest and longest summer vacation we'd ever had as it would be the start of a grand adventure for all of us…

* * *

And that was Chapter 1... feel free to tell me how I'm doing.

Anyways, I've already got Episode 2 ready so I'm planning to upload that sometime between May 12th, 2018 and May 14th, 2018. After that, it will be the schedule of uploading a chapter every two days. (Maybe longer, but not too long.)

So thank you, and remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review so I that people are wanting more and I can keep this going.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	3. Explosive Evolution! Greymon!

Here we are! Chapter 2! I've really got very few things to say this time so, without further ado, on with the show!

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Explosive Evolution! Greymon!**

 _File Island. A-Day (Arrival Day). Time Unknown._

Falling to our doom. That was the thought that was running in my head and probably the heads of the others as well. Kuwagamon's attack had left us in free fall off the cliff and into the large river below. The only problem was that it was at such a height that some of us might not make it if we landed at a wrong angle. We had been on File Island for less than what seemed to be an hour and this place had tried to kill us on multiple occasions. If it wasn't for our Digimon friends, we probably would've been Kuwagamon's breakfast.

"Sora!" "Koushiro!" "Takeru!" Piyomon, Tentomon and Patamon shouted at their respective human friends. The three flying Digimon quickly grabbed hold of the three but were unable to keep flying with the added weight and dropped like stones with the rest of us. Palmon had a different idea and used her vines to grab the cliff face with Mimi in tow. Unfortunately for them, another chunk of the cliff came apart and they resumed falling to a watery grave below. The first two of the group to land in the river was Gomamon and Jou who both survived the landing.

"Marching Fishes!" Gomamon cried out. Almost immediately, a large bed of multicolored fish sprang from the river and quickly gathered into a giant raft that the rest of us safely landed on.  
"W-We're saved…" Taichi said in disbelief. Once again, our lives were owed to our Digimon friends. We gave a quick sigh of relief as we floated down river on the fish raft.  
"Hey, over there!" Yamato shouted out. Our attention turned back upstream to see Kuwagamon and much more of the cliff fall over into the river, on course to create a large tidal wave.  
"Faster!" Gomamon ordered his fish friends as they followed through on the order and picked up speed. It wasn't much help as the river waves picked up and we held to the fish for dear life. I don't know how they all stuck together or stayed above the water but at this point, I wasn't caring about the natural order of things. After a few seconds, we were all washed ashore along the river in a nice, small forest clearing; once again, catching our breaths.

"I think we're finally out of danger." Yamato observed. I wasn't truly agreeing with him. For all we know, Kuwagamon could swim and was just about to burst from the river to attack us again. Thankfully, no attack came as Yamato's observation had been correct.  
"What was the deal with those fishes?" Jou asked, curious to know why we weren't all dead.  
"Those were my Marching Fishes." Gomamon explained. Jou looked up in confusion, wondering what the mohawk seal meant. "I'm able to control fish at will." Huh, so he's like Aquaman.  
"I see, so it was all thanks to you! Thank you, Pukamon… I mean… That is…" Jou trailed off as he wasn't really talking to Pukamon anymore.  
"It's Gomamon."  
"Gomamon?" The rest of us got on our feet and brushed ourselves off, a bit roughed up but alive.

"What happened to you, Tokomon?" Takeru asked the orange bat-hamster.  
"I'm Patamon, now." He responded.  
"We've evolved." Agumon informed.  
"'Evolved?' What's that mean?" Taichi questioned. I know for a fact that Taichi knows what evolution is but I guess in this scenario it is understandable to question what the orange dinosaur means.  
"Normally, it's when organisms in a species change to adapt better to their environment…" Koushiro said, giving the textbook definition of evolution.  
"That's right! From that evolution, I changed from Mochimon into Tentomon." The mechanized ladybug explained.  
"I evolved from Pyocomon to Piyomon."  
"I evolved from Tsunomon to Gabumon."  
"I was Gigimon until I evolved into Guilmon."  
"I evolved from Tanemon to become Palmon."  
"And I evolved from Koromon to Agumon."  
"If that's what you guys call 'Evolution', then Charles Darwin is spinning in his grave right now." I joked. Koushiro, Jou and Taichi all quietly chuckled.

"Well, in any case, you guys seem stronger than before. Are you still a Digital Monster, even after you've evolved?" Taichi asked.  
"Yep! I'm so glad to have met you, Taichi!" Agumon expressed with joy.  
"Huh, why?"  
"I haven't been able to evolve on my own. I'm sure I was able to now because I met you." Taichi could only tilt his head in confusion, not really understanding what Agumon meant by helping him evolve.  
"Then, is it the same for you, Piyomon?" Sora questioned the little pink bird.  
"Definitely." The bird nodded.  
"Could it be the same for everyone?" Koushiro inquired towards Tentomon.  
"Yes, it is!" informed Tentomon.  
"It's all thanks to you, Mimi!" Palmon cheered in appreciation.  
"But I don't even know what I did…" Mimi exasperated.  
"Are you able to turn back?" Takeru asked Patamon.  
"Maybe not." Patamon informed.  
"Well, glad we could help you guys with your evolving problem." I said.  
"We greatly appreciate it, Ross." Guilmon thanked.  
"This still doesn't make much sense to me." Jou grumbled with his arms crossed.  
"It doesn't make much sense to us either." Gomamon responded. Well, that's not very helpful to us if the Digimon themselves don't really know why they evolved.

"Well, now that we've got that out of the way, the main question I think we should ask is what are we going to do now?" Yamato requested. I didn't really have a clue of what we should do and hoped that someone else could come up with something. Thankfully, Jou, being the oldest, gave his idea of our next move.  
"Let's go back to where we came from! We should wait for the adults to come find us." Jou explained. Solid idea, Jou, but there's a lot of problems with that one.  
"That's easier said than done…" Taichi said, taking the words right out of my mouth before I could say anything.  
"We've been swept pretty far away…" Sora noticed as we all looked back up the cliff we were on earlier.  
"And it looks like it would be quite difficult trying to get back up that cliff again." I pointed out.  
"Then what should we do?" Jou questioned before he came up with a different idea. "How about we look for a road somewhere…"  
"More to the point, where are we?" Yamato asked. "It doesn't look like the camp site, no matter where we look."  
"He's right. The vegetation looks like they're from the subtropics." Koushiro observed. Is it possible we were washed out to an uncharted island in the South Pacific?  
"It sure does!" Tentomon exclaimed.  
"Wait, you know what I'm talking about?"  
"No." Koushiro sweat dropped at the answer.  
"There should be a road that leads back up there." Jou said, determined to get his plan of action followed.  
"Perhaps. If we go back, we might be able to find clues on why we're here." Sora said.  
"But aren't there more monsters like the one from before?" Mimi cried in worry.  
"Yes, there are." Palmon bluntly stated, not knowing that being fully honest wasn't really helping Mimi's nerves.  
"See?"  
"I don't want to put anyone in danger…" Yamato informed.  
"Do you know of any ways back up there with as little of resistance as possible?" I questioned Guilmon.  
"I've spent my whole life up on that cliff so... sorry, I wouldn't know." He apologized.  
"Are there any other humans here?" Taichi asked.  
"Humans? Like you?" Agumon responded.  
"Yeah."  
"I've never see any. There's nothing but Digimon here."  
"Only Digimon? But you all sure look different."

"You said that… this is File Island, right?" Sora remembered.  
"Is it really an island?" Yamato asked.  
"I've never heard of it." Koushiro said.  
"This place probably isn't in Japan…" Jou mumbled to himself.  
"Anyways, let's go." Taichi proclaimed. "There's no point standing around here." He turned and began to walk along the river edge.  
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Yamato ordered.  
"I saw the ocean a while ago!"  
"The ocean?"  
"Yeah, so let's go see it!" Taichi then continued walking down the river.  
"Should we go?" Yamato asked Sora.  
"Yeah." She responded as the rest of us followed Taichi, while Jou was still standing at the clearing.  
"In times like these, it's best to stay put and wait for the adults to save us." Jou declared, not noticing he was being left behind. "That's also the reason why we should go back to…"  
"Jou!" Gomamon called out. "Hurry up!"  
"HEY!"

 _File Island. A-Day. Time Unknown._

We followed Taichi's lead and walked down, or in Gomamon's case, swam down the river for what felt like quite a while. It was hard to tell what time it was as the only one to bring a watch was Jou and it wasn't working for him, so it left all of us in the dark as to the approximate time. Our minds were all drifting towards a multitude of questions. Where were we? How did we get here? What exactly were the Digimon? How do we find our way back?

"I've never seen trees like these…" Sora observed.  
"I thought they were subtropical at first, but it appears I was wrong." Koushiro added. Scratch that lost in the South Pacific idea then.  
"Maybe this really isn't Japan… they look really strange." Jou said, clearly still a few pages behind us.  
"These Digital Monsters should have been a big tip off that this place is strange, Jou-san." Yamato interjected.  
"Digital Monster… like, electronic monsters?" Koushiro questioned.  
"You can refer to us as Digimon." Tentomon responded.  
"You don't appear as electronical as your name suggests."  
"What's that, electricity? How's this?" Tentomon began to charge up his Petit Thunder attack right next to the laptop-carrying boy.  
"Hey, stop that!" He cried.  
"Patamon, you were flying before, right?" Takeru questioned.  
"Yeah, I can fly now. Look!" Patamon exclaimed with pride as he began flapping his wings… only for him to go even slower than when he was walking.  
"Cool! But I think it's faster if you walked."  
"I'm much faster! Look!" Piyomon proclaimed… only to be moving as fast as Patamon.  
"There's no difference." Sora pointed out.

"Palmon, you look kind of like a plant." Mimi observed.  
"I am. I can even preform photosynthesis." Palmon claimed.  
"That's neat! Do it, do it!"  
"Mimi, do you know what photosynthesis is?"  
"Um, not really. What is it?" Palmon quickly felt ashamed.  
"Well, I don't really know either…" At the same time, I was just staring at Guilmon as we kept walking. He clearly noticed after a few moments and looked back at me.  
"What? Do I have something in my teeth?" Guilmon asked.  
"No, it's your voice. You're speaking perfect Japanese and yet you have a clear British accent. It's weird." I pointed out.  
"What do you mean? This is just how I talk." I shook my head.  
"We clearly have a lot to learn from each other."  
"So, you said there was nothing but Digimon here, right?" Taichi questioned Agumon.  
"Yeah."  
"So that means Kuwagamon was a Digimon?"  
"Yeah."  
"If there was a big one like him around, there might be others…" Koushiro theorized.  
"We've already said there are only Digimon here." Tentomon informed us once again. Gabumon stopped walking with us when he caught the scent of something on his nose.

"I smell the ocean." He said.  
"And I can see! It's the ocean!" Gomamon confirmed. We all stopped to see the river pour out into a larger body of water that more than likely was the ocean; that or a very large sea. It was almost awe-inspiring, like seeing the mighty Mississippi flowing out in the Gulf of Mexico. Our attention was cut suddenly by the sound of a very familiar ringing noise. It couldn't possibly be a…  
"Is that a phone ringing?" I asked.  
"Why is there a phone ringing in a place like this?" Sora questioned.

We all picked up the pace and ran towards the sound. It was coming from a sandy beach that was overlooked by a small rocky ridge. And on that beach was something completely unexpected: five phone booths that you'd find on a Tokyo street just sitting in the middle of the beach. We didn't question how or why the booths were there; we were concerned about getting to the phone before whoever was on the other end hung up. We picked up speed and ran fast to the phones. Taichi got the phone and opened the booth door, only for the ringing to stop. Great, missed call.

"What's wrong, Taichi?" Agumon asked.  
"It stopped…"  
"I can't believe there are phone booths here…" Sora disbelieved.  
"This is completely strange, I mean, where are the phone and power lines?" I observed.  
"Even so, they do look like the phone booths we normally see…" Yamato pointed out.  
"They're the same as the one next to my house." Mimi added.  
"So that means… We must still be in Japan!" Jou concluded.  
"Japan? Jou, what's that?" Gomamon questioned. They don't know what Japan is yet they're speaking Japanese. Guess we can just consider it luck we can understand each other.  
"…Or maybe not." Jou sighed in defeat.  
"Koushiro, lend me ten yen." Taichi asked. Why he was asking Koushiro and not me was because he knew I didn't have any coins on me, just both yen and dollar bills.  
"What are you going to do?" Koushiro responded.  
"Isn't it obvious? I'm calling home." Oh, wow, Taichi. That's actually a great idea. I feel somewhat ashamed for not thinking of that immediately.  
"Oh, then you can use my phone card for that." The red head went into his pocket and pulled out his phone card before handing it to the goggle-wearing boy.  
"Ah, I'm calling Mom!" Takeru informed and before long the rest of the others were following suit.  
"Me too!" "Hey, Takeru!" "I'll try too." "Even Sora-kun is joining in…" The others said.

Agumon, Guilmon, and I stood next to Taichi as he began to dial on the phone after he inserted the phone card. Hopefully, we could get in contact back home, though how we were going to explain this was beyond me. Amazingly, only after one ring, the phone picked up. Success!  
"Hello, Mom? It's me." He said to the phone receiver.  
"The time is now 35:82:90 AM. Beep. Beep. Beep. BEEP!" The female voice on the other end replied, it was clearly not Yuuko-san.  
"Wha-… What the heck? I think I must have misdialed."  
"That or your mom has flipped." I claimed. From the sounds of it, the others were having the same amount of luck.  
"Huh? Did I dial the wrong number?" "This is weird, Onii-chan." "I'll try calling my own house." "What's wrong with this phone?" "How are things over there?" "Doesn't look like it worked." Taichi hung up his phone and walked over to Sora.  
"Well?"  
"Nothing." She replied.  
"Thought so. What is with these phones?"

 _Phone Beach, File Island. A-Day. Noon._

After our attempts with the phones failed, some of the group decided to take a rest on the beach for a few minutes. During that time, we managed to get an idea of our bearings with the position of the sun signifying we had walked the river southward and got an idea of the time with the sun being at its peak meaning it was at least midday. At the same time, Jou was still trying to use the phones, but getting the same result every single time: failure and disappointment.

"How about this?" Jou said with sheer determination. His determination quickly fell as it looked like once again, the other end of the call was something of complete gibberish. "Next!"  
"He's pretty persistent." Koushiro observed.  
"How much money is gonna sink in that thing?" I pointed out while quickly adjusting my headphones around my neck.  
"That's Jou for ya." Taichi said.  
"No matter where we call, the only thing we get is random information." Yamato concluded.  
"Then let's give up and get a move on." Taichi insisted as he got up off of the ground.  
"Wait a second. Even if we can't call, there might be someone who'll call us. Like the one earlier." Yamato made a good point, but it was clear on Taichi's face that he thought otherwise.  
"It's a waste of time staying here."  
"It won't hurt to keep an eye out here. Besides, everyone's tired!" I looked over my shoulder to see that both Mimi and Takeru were exhausted.  
"We're all kind of hungry as well." Koushiro interjected.  
"Oh, yeah. I forgot I was the only one who actually had breakfast this morning before this whole crazy Digimon thing began." I informed.  
"Well, either way, none of us haven't had lunch yet… Alright, let's take a break!" Taichi announced, to the relief of the others.

"Does anyone have anything to eat? All I have is this…" Sora asked reaching for her back pocket before she realized she had that strange item from earlier clipped to her belt. "This is the thing that came falling from the sky…"  
"Oh, yeah." Taichi realized before he pulled out his trinket as well. "I've got one too." I move my hand to my waist to find that thing was clipped to my pants as well before I unclipped myself.  
"Same here, guys." I added.  
"Mine's on my bag." Mimi said.  
"I have one too." Takeru informed.  
"Looks like everyone is holding one." Yamato observed.  
"I wonder what these things are…" Koushiro thought aloud before we heard his stomach rumbled. "Anyways, we were talking about food, weren't we?"  
"Well, all I have is a travel-size first aid kit. It has adhesive tape, disinfectant, and some thread and needles." Sora explained. Well, that'll come in handy for any injuries.

"I have my laptop, digital camera, and a cell phone… But since I've come here, none of them work. I thought I still had some battery left." Koushiro said with a hint of disappointment.  
"You sure brought a lot of junk to summer camp; then again, Ross did basically the same." Taichi joked.  
"Oh, shut up." I told him.  
"What about you, Taichi-san?" Koushiro asked.  
"Oh, me? Just this. A mini-telescope." Taichi informed.  
"I didn't being any food either." Yamato said. Beside him, Takeru had a big grin on his face, maybe he felt proud because he probably had food.  
"I did." He confirmed. "See?" He opened his backpack to reveal that the bag was filled almost to the brim with candy.  
"Candy! It looks so tasty!" Mimi cheered. "But wait, you're not from our school, are you?"  
"Nope. Since it's summer vacation, I came to visit my Onii-chan. Right, Onii-chan?"  
"Uh, y-yeah…" Yamato stumbled.  
"He calls Yamato, 'Onii-chan.'" Taichi whispered to Koushiro. Looks like he was curious to know why Takeru was calling Yamato that name when they have two different last names.  
"Maybe they're cousins…" Koushiro guessed as Onii-chan could also be used towards an older male cousin. I have a different theory, but I'll keep it to myself.

"Mimi-chan, what did you bring? Your bag looks pretty big." Sora asked the only other girl in our group.  
"Oh, this? Well…" Mimi then began to empty her bag. What Mimi pulled out, I don't think any of us really expected this. Guess it just proves the lesson of not jumping to conclusions. "I have this solid fuel, a Swiss army knife, a compass, a flashlight, and some other items." A Swiss army knife? I knew I was leaving something behind at the apartment, and that compass could've save us a few minutes earlier when we were trying to find our directions on the beach.  
"You're pretty prepared for survival…" Yamato said with surprise.  
"It's been a long time since I've gone to camp, so I borrowed my dad's gear. Secretly."  
"You normally don't bring that stuff though." Taichi pointed out.  
"Well, they may turn out to be useful to us now, though." Yamato added.  
"That's true… we don't know what to expect from now on…" Sora said.  
"Anyways, what about you, Ross? You brought a lot of stuff to camp this year, what do you have in your backpack?" Yamato questioned. I opened up my backpack and started emptying it.  
"Well, let me do a double check. Let's see. My CD-Player. My headphones. A pocket bible. Some binoculars. Some CDs, Phil Collins, A-Ha, Def Leppard, Weird Al. Soundtracks like _**Star Wars**_ , _ **Ghostbusters**_ , _ **The Bodyguard**_."  
"Oh, I love that movie." Mimi interrupted. I smiled; the girl has some good taste.  
"Thanks. And of course, I got sixteen MREs, so we got some food." Everyone but Taichi gave me a strange look. "What? MREs? They're short for Meal, Ready-to-Eat. They give these to soldiers in the field. I buy some of the civilian kind from the commissary at the naval base at Yokosuka." The looks continued.  
"He comes from a military family, his dad is in the Navy, and his future plan is to be an officer in the armed forces." Taichi informed the others. The looks stopped as everyone seemed to get answer to their question. Once again, I felt like a complete outsider.

"Anyway… looks like Jou's still making phone calls, but there's no way he could have brought food or…" Taichi's train of thought began trailing off. "What the! Jou's got the emergency food supply!" He shouted. Almost immediately, we all jumped to attention. How did we not notice that!?  
"He does!" Koushiro cried out.  
"Hey, Jou! You're carrying the emergency rations!"  
"Why do I have to carry that?!" Jou yelled back, while he was still on the phone.  
"But that bag…" Koushiro interjected.  
"Bag? Oh yeah, I've been trying to hand this over to Mimi-kun!"  
"He's talking about you." Palmon said.  
"Me?" Mimi questioned as Jou ran up to her with the bag.  
"Mimi-kun, it was your turn to take charge of the emergency rations. You need to keep a better eye on it!" Jou argued.  
"But it's so heavy!" Mimi whined.  
"Don't be so selfish!"  
"Now, now!" Taichi walked up trying to be a mediator to the two. "It's great just knowing that we have something to eat. Now let's have some lunch."  
"Right!" Sora added.

After a few minutes, both the humans and the Digimon, except Gomamon who was swimming in the ocean, gathered around in preparation for lunch and how to divide up the food.  
"Okay." Jou began. "Each group at camp is given three days worth of food. So, since our group had eight people, eight times three times three is…"  
"Seventy-two meals, plus my sixteen MREs gives us a grand total of eighty-eight meals." I calculated.  
"Right! So if we divide that up evenly between us…"  
"Three and two-third days." Koushiro pointed out.  
"R-Right…" Jou finished with defeat in his voice.  
"But since we're sharing with the Digimon, it'll be half that. The food won't last for more than a day and a half." Sora pointed out. She was right, come dinner tomorrow; we'd be out of food.  
"Oh yeah…"  
"We're fine. We'll find food for ourselves." Gabumon said. We all gave a collective 'Huh?'  
"You don't need to count us in." Tentomon continued.  
"If you guys need it more, we'll be happy to find our own." Guilmon spoke up.  
"Is that really okay?" Sora asked.  
"Yeah, it is. It's what we've always been doing." Piyomon explained.  
"That really helps us! Okay then, this food will be for the humans…" Jou said, however, I began tuning him out because I looked over his shoulder to see Taichi being empty headed as he sometimes was. That was because he and Agumon are chowing down on some fish bites!  
"HEY!" I cried out, drawing everyone's attention towards the two of them. Jou looked like he was going to blow a gasket.  
"I _said_ it's only for the humans!" He yelled.  
"Oh relax. Don't be stingy!" Taichi defended.  
"Well, stop being a pig!" I countered. Our food issue was quickly put aside as Piyomon got up with a determined look on her face that spelled trouble.  
"What's wrong, Piyomon?" Sora asked.  
"Something's coming." She responded. We all turned our heads towards the direction she was looking to see.

Immediately, a large water spout shot out of the ground drawing us all on our feet. The spout then began to move along the beach and crashed into the phone booths, shooting them all into the air and destroying them. We quickly ran away from our bags and tried to move into a safer location so we wouldn't be hit by the falling booths.  
"Wh-What was that?" Taichi asked in shock. His question was answered when a large grey shell burst from the sand.  
"It's Shellmon!" Tentomon cried out.  
"Shellmon?" Koushiro questioned.  
"This area must be his territory!" The top of Shellmon's shell stopped its drilling and from the shell revealed the pink skinned creature with his two arms and a large dinosaur looking face.  
"Shell!" He roared.  
"Shellmon is an aggressive Adult-Level Digimon! His Hydro Pressure attack is a force to be reckoned with!" Tentomon explained.  
"Everyone, this way!" Jou ordered as he began to scale the small ridge behind us. Shellmon clearly didn't want us escaping and shot a geyser of water from the top of his head towards the ridge and blasted Jou off of it. He landed hard on the ground before Sora and Yamato went over to help him.  
"Jou!" Gomamon shouted before he was hit by a fury of Hydro Pressure in the ocean. Shellmon then soon turned his attention to the rest of us.  
"Let's go, guys!" Agumon commanded the other Digimon as the all charged forward.  
"I'm counting on you, Agumon!" Taichi yelled in support.

"Baby Flame!" Agumon launched his signature attack towards the giant crustacean that hit right in the jaw. However, that was the only good news we were going to get.  
"Petit Fir-huh?" Gabumon could barely make a spark shoot out.  
"Magical Fi-…" Piyomon stopped mid attack and fell to the ground.  
"Fireball! Ugh!" Guilmon went to his knees, unable to do anything and the same went for Tentomon as well.  
"Petit Thunder…Ohh."

"What's going on?" I questioned.  
"Their attacks aren't working!" Yamato noticed. Shellmon took advantage of this drawback and blasted the five Digimon onto the sand.  
"Agumon!" Taichi yelled. The orange dinosaur quickly got back up and charged once again. Patamon and Palmon tried to launch their attacks but like the others, they failed and were knocked away.  
"Baby Flame!" Agumon attacked again and hit Shellmon in the same place as before.  
"Looking good, Agumon!"  
"How come only Augmon can fight?" Koushiro wondered.  
"I'm sorry… I'm so… hungry…" Tentomon moaned.  
"Gabumon…" Yamato said with worry.  
"I have no strength…" He replied.  
"I get it! It's because Agumon ate earlier!" Sora concluded.  
"I see…" Koushiro realized.  
"So does that mean the other Digimon have no power to fight?" Yamato asked.  
"Looks like it, Yamato. It's all up to Agumon then." I told him.

"Agumon! We'll have to make do on our own!" Taichi informed the only fighting Digimon, obviously listening to our concerns.  
"Gotcha, Taichi!" Agumon responded. After that, Taichi stupidly ran out towards Shellmon, clearly trying to distract the large Digimon but putting himself in greater danger.  
"Hey! Over here, Shellmon!" He yelled.  
"Taichi! Get out of there, you're gonna get yourself killed!" I cried out. Taichi clearly wasn't listing as he just stayed where he was.  
"Baby Flame!" Agumon delivered another hot attack that caught Shellmon off guard, but really didn't deliver that much damage. Taichi found himself a large pole from the destroyed phone booths and charged towards Shellmon before stabbing at him.  
"Take this! You piece of… Damn it!" He shouted before one of the green tentacles on Shellmon's head grabbed a hold of Taichi.  
"Taichi!" Agumon cried before he was crushed under Shellmon's hand. With the main threat against him neutralized, Shellmon directed his Hydro Pressure attack on the rest of us, pounding us into the sand with the force of a dozen firehoses.  
"Damn it! At this rate, everyone's gonna get… Isn't there anything we can do!?" I heard Taichi yell. My heart quickly sank as I saw my brother in all but blood being strangled by the green tentacle. Taichi cried out in pain. Was this really how our lives were to end?

"Taichi!"  
"Agumon!"  
"TAICHI!" Suddenly, the activation noise we heard earlier sounded again, and Agumon began to glow in a bright, white light.  
"Agumon?!" Taichi yelled with the rest of us looking in awe at the amazing sight before our eyes.  
"Agumon, Evolve! GREYMON!" Agumon had gone from a small dinosaur to a much larger one as he managed to evolve again. The newly dubbed Greymon was quite a mighty beast as he threw Shellmon off of him and got the crustacean to release Taichi, thank God. Greymon was a large T-Rex looking Digimon that was a darker orange colored skin with blue stripes on his body, and a brown, horned skull that covered the top part of his head. For whatever reason, he looks kinda familiar. Eh, maybe I'm thinking of Gojira.

The two Digimon growled at each other in a standoff, just waiting to see who would make the first move. Shellmon, obviously less patient, charged towards Greymon.  
"You can do it, Greymon!" Taichi cheered. Greymon clearly was beginning to gain the upper hand as he started pushing back Shellmon. It was obvious to Shellmon he was losing so he launched a Hydro Pressure at point-blank range, hoping to break the deadlock. However, Greymon moved over and avoided the attack before launching his own move. He blew out a large stream of fire from his mouth. The fire collided with the water and created a massive screen of steam which Greymon used in his favor. He ran up towards Shellmon and used his head to launch him into the air, leaving the underside of the shell exposed to fire.  
"Mega Flame!" Greymon cried out as a massive fire ball was launched towards the flying crustacean before connecting with his underside and causing a massive explosion. The explosion propelled Shellmon even further in the air towards the ocean and he crashed in a large geyser of water almost a kilometer from the beach. Greymon roared in victory before he grew bright again and began to shrink back to Agumon. Taichi saw this and ran towards the exhausted Digimon.  
"Agumon! You changed back… Are you okay, Agumon?" Taichi worried.  
"Taichi… I'm hungry…" Agumon responded. Taichi could only laugh in response.

About twenty minutes after the battle, we were all preparing to head on out. We were gathering our things and feeding the other Digimon some food while at the same time Jou was still trying to call on the now destroyed phone.  
"Hello? Hello?!" He yelled on the phone. The guy doesn't know when to quit, I'll give him that.  
"I don't think there's any reason for us to stay here." Taichi declared.  
"Yeah…" Yamato agree.  
"Eat as much as you want!" Sora told the Digimon as they happily chowed down of the fish bites that Agumon had earlier.  
"We haven't completely beaten Shellmon, he was only temporarily disorganized." Koushiro informed us.  
"Then I guess that's our cue to get out of Dodge before he comes back for Round Two." I said. Both Taichi and Yamato nodded in confirmation. Jou, finally realizing that the phones were done, walked up towards the rest of us.  
"Then let's go back to that forest! The one that we turned up in! Let's wait for help there!" Jou pleaded his case.  
"Like I said before, we fell off a cliff and went downstream. We can't get back so easily." Sora pointed out.  
"No more Kuwagamon!" Mimi cried, clearly scared that we'd run into that beetle again.  
"Since there were phones here, there must be people who've put them there." Koushiro explained. "We should go look for them."  
"That's a good idea…" Jou said.  
"I agree with that plan…" Sora informed.  
"It's not like we have a better one." I added.  
"All right! Let's do it!" Taichi enthusiastically cheered.  
"I'll go wherever you go, Taichi!" Agumon loyally declared.  
"Thanks, Agumon!"  
"Then it's decided." Yamato concluded. Jou nodded nervously.  
"Make sure you don't leave your stuff behind, everyone!" He said.  
"All right! Let's go!" Taichi announced as we all followed his lead and left the beach with hope in our hearts that we'd find civilization and a way back home.

Of course, what we didn't know however was that things were just getting started…

* * *

And Chapter 2 is now in the books... remember to message me on how this story is going.

So, Chapter 3 is half-way done and I'm expecting to upload it by the May 14th, 2018, so I'll see you readers then.

Thanks for reading, and remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review so I know that people are wanting more and keep this going.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	4. The Blue Wolf! Garurumon!

Here we are! Chapter 3!

But first, here's some fun stuff!

First, thank you to **God of the Challenge** for being the first one to Fave this story. It's nice to know that people are keeping an eye out for this story. Now, all that's left for the milestone firsts is the first review.

Next, fun little tidbit. On Deviantart, the artist Cryptid-Creations has reached her 2000th Daily Drawing, which is impressive in it's own right but yesterday, she uploaded a certain picture that I thought I should mention. The past week she's been doing Anime-puns like Full Metal 'Owl'chemist or Naru'toad'. Well, Daily Paint 1999 was Digimononoke with Princess Mononoke dressed as Gabumon riding Garurumon. I just thought that was cool considering A) Digimon premiered in 1999 and B) Considering who the Digimon who is the focus of this chapter.

Finally, it's Mother's Day, so happy Mother's Day to all Moms especially to the woman who has being keeping my butt straight for almost 24 years now. Love ya, Mom!

Anyways, I think that's enough rambling. To our next chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Blue Wolf! Garurumon!**

 _File Island. A-Day. Midday._

After a couple of what felt like hours, we were able to find a path that took us off the beach and get us on the ridgeline that overlooked the ocean. It was about midday by the time we could get a real good glimpse of the surrounding area as we stopped near the edge of a cliff that was further along the ridgeline. From here, we could see much wider view of the island including the river and the beach where we were earlier. For some of us, the thoughts of what had happened earlier with Shellmon were at the forefront, especially Taichi.

"Agumon!" He called.  
"What is it, Taichi?"  
"Why did you change back from Greymon into Agumon?"  
"Well…"  
"Well?"  
"I don't actually know!" Taichi was taken aback by the answer and began to fall forward off the cliff. Thankfully, Agumon got ahold of his shirt and kept him from falling, to the humor of the rest of us. Our laughter stopped instantaneously as we heard the sound of a loud roar from behind us.  
"What's that?" questioned Sora.

Bursting from behind a boulder was another dinosaur looking Digimon, this time an Ankylosaur-type that possessed white skin and dark grey armor as well a large horn of the front of his snout.  
"What is that?" asked Koushiro.  
"That's Monochromon." informed Tentomon. "But he's a really nice Digimon, so there's no need to worry." Unfortunately, Monochromon began walking towards our direction and he really didn't look that friendly.  
"Well, forgive us if we're a bit on edge, Tentomon, but he's heading towards us!" I observed.  
"No!" cried Mimi. We then heard a similar roar right behind us and saw that a second Monochromon had snuck up on us.  
"There's another one!" Jou yelled.  
"Not good, they've got us on both sides." Yamato said with worry.  
"Run, guys!" ordered Taichi and we followed him and Agumon behind a large boulder while the two Monochromon clashed horns against each other. The fight between them was ferocious with neither side wanting to give ground to the other. "Wait, they're fighting each other?"  
"Why?" Koushiro wondered.  
"They must be fighting over territory." Tentomon theorized. That was not good; getting caught in territorial fight with any animal would be bad news.  
"Let's get out of here while we still can!" suggested Palmon. "Let's go!"  
"Wait, Palmon! Don't run ahead on your own!" shouted Mimi as the two of them took off deeper into the forest with the rest of us following close behind. The sounds of the battle behind us were starting to sound further away, but we didn't want to take a chance. Takeru quickly cried out as he tripped and fell to the ground behind us.  
"Takeru! Are you alright?" Yamato worried.  
"You're fine, right Takeru?" asked Taichi. The youngest kid confirmed the question by getting back up on his own before breaking into a sprint again.

 _File Island. A-Day. Dusk._

After a couple of minutes of running from the Monochromon, we slowed down after assuming we were no longer in any immediate danger and kept walking down the dirt road through the forest. A couple of kilometers later, we started to see something strange about the forest. All through the area were street and road signs from all over the world. Jou got the idea that this must have meant that there were other humans around here, somewhere. That remained to be seen though.

"I'm tired…" Mimi groaned with exhaustion.  
"Just a little farther, Mimi." insisted Taichi.  
"My calves will get fat."  
"Fatter legs are better, Mimi." Agumon informed the cowgirl, oblivious to the point that you never tell a woman that less you have a death wish. "They can support your weight, and you can kick the dirt with them."  
"I'm not like you." Mimi pointed out before Palmon ran up to the both of them.  
"That's right! Feet that look like plant roots are more beautiful!" Palmon said.  
"I don't like that either." Clearly, these Digimon had quite a lot to learn.  
"The sunset has a very strange color." observed Koushiro.  
"Looks like the day is almost over." Sora concluded.  
"What should we do? It'll be dangerous to venture farther when it gets darker."  
"I smell something!" Tentomon announced as he immediately took off. "I smell it! The smell of fresh water! Ahh, we've got drinking water! It's a lake! A lake! Let's camp over there!" He cried.  
"I agree! I can't walk anymore." Mimi said.  
"I'm gonna…" Gomamon cheered as he began running towards the lake, only to be stopped in his tracks by Jou holding on to his tail.  
"Hold it right there, Gomamon!"  
"I think we've walked far enough today." pointed out Yamato.  
"Everyone's tired and hungry." Taichi added.  
"We just can't keep going, we need to rest." I summed up.  
"Okay! We'll camp by the lake tonight!" Jou announced to the relief of our group.

It was about another couple of minutes before we arrived at the lake. The way the sunset gleamed off the water gave it a calming pinkish hue. Towards the center of the lake, large power poles were sticking out of the water, unconnected with each other. In short, while strange, the lake would prove to be a pretty good spot to rest the night.  
"Wow, what a huge lake!" Piyomon claimed.  
"This is the best place for camping." Sora insisted.  
"Hey, does camping mean we have to sleep outdoors?" questioned Mimi.  
"Well, Mimi-chan, that is what camping means so, yeah." I told her.  
"No way." She moaned disappointedly. After she said that, the sound of electricity crackling reached our ears and we turned to see there was a small peninsula in the lake's edge and on it was a trolley car whose headlights turned on.  
"The lights came on!" said Taichi.  
"It's a trolley!" Takeru pointed out.  
"What is it doing here…?" Koushiro wondered.  
"Hey, maybe someone's inside!" Sora suggested. Taichi clearly did not need to hear more and took off for the trolley.  
"Let's take a look!" He shouted as the rest of us followed him, hopeful to find some other humans in this place. When we arrived to the trolley, we discovered to our shock and disappointment that the vehicle was completely empty. "No one's here!"  
"Impossible! How could this thing even get started if there's no one to activate it?" I questioned.  
"Well, whatever started it, it's still surprisingly pretty new." observed Koushiro. Mimi walked over to one of the seats to sit down and began bouncing on it.  
"These cushions are really comfy!" She cheered.  
"But, I don't get this… First the phones at the beach, now this… what's going on?" Taichi curiously kept his mind on the larger questions at hand.  
"You don't think this will start moving on its own, do you?" Jou wondered from the control room.  
"Of course not! For one thing, there're no tracks."  
"This place will be comfortable to sleep in…" Sora said.  
"But why don't we get food first?" insisted Tentomon.

The next hour we began preparing for dinner and camping for the coming night. It was decided that we would live off the land for dinner tonight so we wouldn't have to use more of our food supplies. It was a smart decision and it would buy us at least an additional meal before we'd eventually run out of food. After that, I don't really know what we'll do after that.

For Koushiro and Takeru, the two of them took up fishing; well, Koushiro fished while Takeru watched with Gomamon swimming nearby to Koushiro's frustration, as he complained that Gomamon was scaring away the fish. Of course, this would be easier if he just used his Marching Fishes power but I guess that would be betraying them. Besides, if it wasn't for them, that falling off the cliff could've ended a lot more tragically. Taichi and Yamato were near the water's edge, gathering fresh water for us to drink as well as building the campfire, without wood of course. Jou, Sora and I went out to collect the firewood so we could cook the food and keep ourselves warm as we didn't really know how cold it could get at night here. Tentomon was nearby gathering berries that he claimed were his favorite. The other Digimon were gathering different kinds of food, just to give us some verity. In one funny incident, Patamon used an Air Shot on some bananas that fell and impaled themselves on Gabumon's horn, to the humor of his fellow Digimon. As for Mimi and Palmon, they found some mushrooms. The ones Palmon found were edible, but the ones Mimi discovered were poisonous according to Palmon.

"Okay, let's get ready to prepare dinner." Yamato said, with him, myself, Taichi, and Sora overlooking the unlit campfire.  
"But how can we light a fire?" Sora wondered. None of us had brought a match or a lighter. Thankfully, the problem was solved almost immediately.  
"Leave it to me!" insisted Agumon who launched a Baby Flame that ignited the fire.  
"Hey, you're useful, Agumon!" praised Taichi, which Agumon responded with a proud smile.  
"I could've done to that too." Guilmon pointed out.  
"We'll let you light the next fire, okay?" I promised. Koushiro and Takeru soon ran over to the fire with a good haul of small fish in their hands.  
"We've caught a lot!" Koushiro informed as he handed his haul off to Taichi, while Takeru gave his to Yamato.  
"Nice job, Koushiro." Taichi said.  
"You did great, Takeru." Yamato thanked. Taichi got to work on cooking his fish… by holding it by the tail above the fire which all he was going to do was burn his fingers off. Taichi knew how to cook, but he wasn't really experienced in cooking outdoors.  
"You'll just ruin the fish that way." Yamato warned as he had placed a stick though his fish and placed it next to the fire to cook it.  
"You sure know a lot about this, Yamato." Taichi reluctantly admitted. It was always difficult for Taichi to admit he was wrong to anyone that wasn't Hikari.

 _Trolley Lake, File Island. A-Day. Evening_

I have to admit, the food we were eating tonight was probably better than whatever they were going to serve at camp. The local wildlife and foliage was beyond exotic but thankfully, the food for the most part was the closest in a sense of normality in a place that's anything but normal. Everyone looked like they were enjoying their meal but in terms of talking, we were pretty silent.

"Delish!" Taichi said as he finished his dinner.  
"Takeru." Yamato addressed the younger boy.  
"What is it, Onii-chan?"  
"Want me to take the bones out?"  
"Just bite through the head and keep going." Taichi suggested.  
"Yeah, Takeru, eat it like a man." I joked.  
"Okay." The boy replied has he dug into the fish. Taichi then walked over to Sora who was getting some more water.  
"Sora." said Taichi.  
"Hm?"  
"Takeru calls Yamato 'Onii-chan', but those two have different last names, don't they?" Sora nodded. "Why?"  
"I don't know." Jou walked up to the both of them with his head looking towards the stars. "What's wrong, Senpai?" Sora addressed the eldest boy.  
"I was trying to figure out which direction we're in, but I can't find the North Star."  
"You're right; I don't see any familiar constellations."  
"That's odd… You can only see the North Star from the Northern Hemisphere, right?" Taichi questioned.  
"Then could we be in the Southern Hemisphere?" Sora proposed.  
"It can't be… I don't see the Southern Cross either." said Jou.  
"So what does that mean?" Taichi asked as I walked up to them.  
"It means we're more lost then we before, Taichi, plain and simple." I bluntly stated.  
"We can only just hope that we run into other humans or find some sign that might lead us back home." Jou summed up.

"Sleepy, Patamon?" Takeru asked the small Digimon who had just yawned. A few of the other Digimon had dozed off too, it was clear it was close to bed time for the lot of us.  
"Let's get ready for bed." Taichi yawned.  
"Perhaps we should take turns keeping watch." Koushiro suggested.  
"He's right. The last thing we want is to be attacked in our sleep." I added.  
"So, shall we decide on a watch order?" Jou questioned.  
"Well, it'll be fine if the girls stay out of it." Taichi informed.  
"Takeru doesn't need to either." insisted Yamato.  
"I'm fine!" Takeru argued.  
"Don't worry about it. Just sleep."  
"But there's no bedding we can sleep in…" Mimi complained. A mischievous grin came across Taichi's face as he walked over to Gabumon.  
"Hey, Gabumon. Let me borrow your pelt to use as a blanket. I've been dying to see what you look like underneath that. Let me see!" The google-wearing boy teased. The pelt-wearing Digimon panicked and tried running with Taichi holding on tight.  
"Anything but that!" He cried as Taichi let go. Yamato quickly ran up to Taichi and gave him a hard shove.  
"Stop that!" He ordered.  
"What are you doing?" Taichi questioned.  
"Can't you see he doesn't like it?"  
"You didn't have to push me for that!" Both boys grabbed each other by the collars of their shirts, ready to start swinging fists.  
"Stop it, you two!" Takeru shouted. It clearly threw the both of them off and they let go of each other, only to turn their backs against each other.  
"Okay… so then who will be our first lookout?" asked Jou.  
"I'll do it!" Taichi volunteered.  
"I'm next!" Yamato said.  
"Hey, can I watch with Taichi? There's something I want to talk to him about." I spoke up.  
"Okay then. Ross and Taichi will take first watch, Yamato goes second, Koushiro can be third, and I'll finish up the night. All right everyone, let's sleep in the trolley!" Jou announced.

 _Trolley Lake, File Island. A-Day. Nighttime._

It was about an hour after everyone headed to bed. Taichi yawned once again as he kept staring at the fire that Agumon had started; Guilmon was upset at that because he was supposed to light the next one but got over it. The two of them were next to us quietly chatting with each other. As for me, I was just passing the time until Yamato's watch by reading my bible. I would've listened to my headphones that were still around my neck but that would've defeated the purpose of watching. I need my ears to listen for anything that was coming.

"There's no point in keeping watch if you fall asleep." Agumon responded to Taichi's yawns.  
"We'll take up the rest of the watch if you want." I offered.  
"I'm fine. Besides, don't you need sleep as well?"  
"Hey, I go to sleep at midnight and wake up at six in the morning. I can rest on six hours of sleep." Taichi chuckled at my response.  
"Well, Dad's been known to work on three or four hours of sleep, so I guess it's about the same with you."  
"Yeah… speaking of dads… Dad was supposed to be finally coming back home tomorrow… and now, well, it's like fate wants to keep us apart. Do you know I almost considered skipping camp this year?"  
"You did?"  
"Yeah, I could be home playing X-Wing Alliance or Nocturne in the Moonlight or something, and wake up in the morning to find Dad waiting at the door. But I chose to come because you and Hikari were going to come and we had done this the previous years."  
"Speaking of Hikari…"  
"Oh my God, I forgot. The teachers have probably noticed we've vanished by now. The 64 has probably been taken… Our folks probably got the call a few hours ago and have to be worried sick."  
"She was supposed to come with us." Taichi muttered, still focused on Hikari.  
"Turns out getting sick may have been a blessing. If she didn't…"  
"She'd be stuck here with us. And I didn't see a ninth Digimon waiting for us, so she'd be wide open and…"  
"Hey! Let's not worry about that. Let's focus on trying to get home, okay?"  
"Yeah… Hey, Ross? About Yamato and Takeru…"  
"The whole 'Onii-chan' thing you asked Koushiro and Sora about?"  
"Yeah, that."  
"Well, I had an idea but I kept it to myself, but I think they're maybe brothers, separated by their parents divorcing."  
"You think?"  
"Well, there's really only one way to find out, but that's something I'm not really comfortable asking about. And you shouldn't either after what happened between you two earlier."  
"I hear that." He yawned again. "I'm gonna go splash some water on my face." He got up and began walking to the water's edge.  
"I think I'll take your advice on that."

After we both got a quick splash in the face, we were prepared to rejoin Agumon and Guilmon by the fire, but we both noticed that someone else was nearby.  
"Who's there?" Taichi demanded. We both could quickly see that it was Yamato with his back to us. "Oh, Yamato. It's too early to switch."  
"I couldn't sleep." He told us.  
"Well, that's not good. You need some rest if you're gonna take the next watch." I said.  
"Yeah… Taichi, sorry about earlier." Yamato apologized.  
"No, I'm sorry too…" Taichi admitted.  
"I'm always like this… Maybe that's why Takeru is more attached to you…" I was a bit confused on that. Taichi and Takeru have only known each other for about twenty-four hours.  
"Hey, what is Takeru to you anyways?" Taichi asked.  
"We're brothers. Our parents divorced, so we're living separately."  
"Yeah, that's what I thought, but I didn't really want to say anything that may have upset you, Yamato." I told him. Yamato didn't say a word. Instead he took off and ran over the land bridge of the peninsula to the lake edge. Both Taichi and I shrugged at each other and went back to the fire.

After a few moments, we heard the sound of a harmonica playing over the quiet night. It was probably Yamato playing it.  
"What's that sound?" asked Guilmon.  
"That's a harmonica, Guilmon. It's a musical instrument from where we come from." I said. Taichi sighed as he stared back at the fire. The sound of the harmonica was getting on his nerves. He picked up a small stick and poked the fire before the stick burst into flames and flew behind him.  
"Whoa, one of the embers popped!" Taichi cried. Suddenly the ground began to shake violently. "Wh-What?!"  
"Is this an earthquake?!" I asked. It wasn't. A whirlpool began spinning in front of us and grew taller until a blue and white skinned creature burst from the water. It had a yellow head, red mark on its body and sharp reptilian eyes like the sea serpent of Greek legend.

"Agumon! What is that thing!?" Taichi shouted.  
"That's Seadramon! He's a fiendish Adult Digimon who strangles his prey with his long body and finishes them with his ferocious Ice Arrow!" Agumon explained. The others quickly ran out of the trolley, wide awake from the commotion that Seadramon had caused. A quick look from behind showed the land bridge was now destroyed as the island began moving.  
"The island…It-it's moving!" Agumon observed. Koushiro and Tentomon ran up next to us.  
"It's like Seadramon is pulling this island with him." said Koushiro.  
"This can't be! Seadramon will never attack unless he feels threatened!" Tentomon informed.  
"He stopped!" observed Guilmon.  
"You four didn't do anything bad to him, did you?!" I should feel insulted over the accusation that we'd do anything to put the others in harm's way.  
"We did nothing! Nothing at all!" The four of us defended, though it was kinda creepy we all said the same thing. Tentomon was then launched by the red leaf object that was on the ground. As it turned out, that was Seadramon's tail.  
"That leaf thing was actually his tail!" Taichi pointed out.  
"So it _is_ your fault!" Tentomon said.  
"Okay, our bad!" I apologized. Seadramon then swatted his tail on the island, knocking us all on our backs before he sank back beneath the waves.  
"Oh, man! He's pissed!" stated Taichi. The island continued moving until it crashed in the power lines that were at the center of the lake.

"We finally stopped." Taichi gave a sigh of relief.  
"But now we can't escape anywhere!" pointed out Koushiro.  
"He's coming back!" I yelled as Seadramon roared in our direction.  
"Let's go everyone, okay?" Agumon ordered the other Digimon to hop into action and defend us against the giant serpent.  
"Magical Fire!" "Air Shot!" "Poison Ivy!" "Petit Thunder!" "Fireball!" "Baby Flame!" The Digimon cried their respective attacks; however, much like against Shellmon earlier in the day, they had little effect.  
"Agumon, evolve!" said Taichi.  
"I've been trying to, but I can't!"  
"Why?"  
"I told you, I don't know either!" That's not good, if we can't get the firepower of Greymon against Seadramon, we're in deep trouble.  
"Man, you're useless when it really counts!" Well, that was uncalled for Taichi, he's trying.  
"Hey, Takeru!" We heard Yamato cry out. We turned to see he was trying to swim towards us with Gabumon close behind him. Takeru and Gomamon ran towards Yamato in an effort to help him.  
"Yamato-kun!" Sora shouted.  
"Onii-chan!" yelled Takeru. "Onii-chan!" Another shake of the island from Seadramon knocked the youngest member of our group into the water. Gomamon quickly jumped into action and leapt after Takeru.  
"Takeru!" Yamato shouted with worry. Thankfully, it was short lived as Takeru popped out of the water with Gomamon underneath him like a pool toy.  
"Onii-chan!"  
"Nice, Gomamon!" Jou praised.  
"Yamato, hurry!" insisted Taichi.  
"Yamato… it's Seadramon!" Tentomon warned. Yamato then told Gomamon to take his little brother to safety, while he took a page out of Taichi's book and used himself as bait.

"Hey! Seadramon, over here!" He shouted as he swam in the opposite direction, hoping to get the water snake's attention. As it turned, it did. Unfortunately, Yamato was trying to distract Seadramon while in the sea serpent's element.  
"Petit Fire!" Gabumon launched one of his attacks at Seadramon but only aggravated him. He responded by using his tail to toss the pelt-wearing Digimon back onto the island.  
"Gabumon!" yelled Yamato before he was violently dragged under the water; obvious that Seadramon had got a hold of him.  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru cried. "It's because of me! It's because he saved me that he…!" He couldn't even finish that sentence as he felt so tormented with guilt.  
"Yamato!" Taichi called out. The response was Yamato screaming out in pain as he had been pulled out of the water, but was wrapped up by the lower end of Seadramon's body.  
"Bad! This is very bad! Now Seadramon will never let go until he's squeezed the breath out of him!" Tentomon informed.  
"We need to do something and quick or Yamato's finished!" I declared, but no ideas were coming up in my head.  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru yelled with tears in his eyes as he was watching the life being strangled out of his brother. "Patamon, please, save my brother!"  
"M-My powers won't work against Seadramon!" He confessed. "But Gabumon, maybe you could…"  
"It's impossible. I don't have that kind of power…" Gabumon said in defeat. Yamato cried out in pain once again, drawing our attention back to him.  
"Onii-chan!"  
"Yamato! I won't be able to listen to Yamato play his harmonica anymore… I won't be able to hear that gentle melody anymore…" admitted Gabumon. The strange item that fell from the sky that was on Yamato's belt began to shine a bright green light from the screen.

"YAMATO!" Gabumon screamed!  
"Gabumon…!" Yamato choked out. The rest of us looked over to see Gabumon begin glowing in a bright light, the telltale sign that he was evolving.  
"Gabumon, Evolve! GARURUMON!" The former reptile had evolved into a large white with blue stripes wolf who's fur was the same as the pelt that Gabumon was wearing before. The wolf immediately sprung in to action and sprinted at great speed towards Yamato and Seadramon. He jumped up and sliced right into the part of Seadramon that was holding Yamato and forced him to release the blond-headed boy before sinking his jaw right into the serpent's back.

Yamato managed to swim back to the island before collapsed from the sheer exhaustion. Takeru quickly ran up to his now safe brother.  
"Onii-chan, are you okay?" Takeru asked. Yamato got back up after his short respite and turned his attention back to the battle.  
"Don't worry about me. Where's Gabumon?" To answer his question, the now-dubbed Garurumon was swimming through the water like a torpedo and using his tail like a whip to attack Seadramon and it was clear that he was actually getting hurt by it.  
"Garurumon's fur is as strong as the legendary metal, mythril!" Tentomon informed.  
"What is this legendary metal?" questioned Koushiro.  
"Since it's legendary, I've never seen it, so I don't know."  
"You two really need to read Tolkien." I joked, with Taichi laughing next to me.  
"I can't tell whether Tentomon _really_ knows his stuff or not." He pointed out, to the embarrassment of the bug Digimon. Seadramon roared at Garurumon before he let out a terrible stream of ice from his mouth, and hit the wolf head on, freezing him in the water.  
"That's Seadramon's finishing attack, Ice Arrow!" Tentomon announced as Seadramon continued pouring into the attack. However, it looked like that mythril-like fur was as strong as it was claimed as Garurumon shrugged off the attack and responded with his own attack.  
"Fox Fire!" He cried as he let loose a beam of blue fire from his mouth that tore right through Seadramon's beam and slammed directly into the sea serpent's mouth, causing a large explosion that knocked Seadramon out and caused him to crash back into the water defeated.  
"He did it!" Yamato cheered as Seadramon sank into the lake before Garurumon reverted back to Gabumon and swam ashore; proud of both his evolution and his saving of Yamato.

"Gabumon!" Yamato cried.  
"Somehow it all worked out." The reptile humbly said.  
"If you could evolve, why didn't you do so in the first place?" Takeru walked up to Gabumon and gave him a hug in gratitude.  
"Gabumon, thank you for saving us!" He thanked.  
"N-Not at all…" Gabumon shyly said.  
"Also, Onii-chan, thanks a lot!"  
"I-It was nothing…" Yamato said shyly as well, his face as red as Gabumon's.  
"You're just too shy." joked Gabumon.  
"Look who's talking." He responded before they began to laugh, and soon the rest of us joined in.  
"I hate to break this moment up, but how do we get back to land?" Jou questioned. Killjoy.  
"Leave that to me!" Gomamon then jumped into the water. "Marching Fishes!" Soon, the fishes were pushing the island back to the lake's edge.

After a few minutes, we gathered our things and moved our rest spot away from the trolley. No way were we going to sleep there again tonight; we'll sleep on ground that won't move.  
"I'm so tired…" Mimi drowsily said.  
"I'm curious, why could only Gabumon evolve this time?" wondered Koushiro who was still focused on the battle.  
"Could it be because Yamato was the one in trouble?" Sora suggested. I saw the look on Taichi's face, he was clearly thinking back to when Agumon evolved into Greymon.  
"Last time, Agumon evolved just when I was about to get it."  
"So they probably evolve when great danger draws near us." Koushiro theorized.  
"That sounds about right, but I don't think we should go out of our way and put ourselves in any more danger just to test it." I said. The three of them nodded in agreement. As I finished, Mimi fell over right onto Sora's shoulder with her eyes closed.  
"What's wrong, Mimi-chan?" She asked.  
"I'm gonna sleep here." She yawned out before lying on the ground.  
"Heh, we've only spent less than a day here, and she's already gotten stronger."  
"She'll end up with a solid body like mine in no time." Agumon proudly declared.  
"She might even grow wings like me." Piyomon added.  
"I don't want that…" Mimi muttered.  
"There's still plenty of night left, so why don't we follow her lead and get some sleep." Koushiro suggested. A couple of minutes later, most of the others were fast asleep with only me and Taichi still awake. Taichi yawned once again before we both noticed Yamato playing his harmonica again. We walked over to see Patamon, Gabumon, and Takeru all fast asleep next to Yamato as he kept on playing.  
"Hey." I tapped Taichi on the shoulder. "Let's go to sleep, it's his watch now."  
"Right..." He said as the two of us walked away and joined the others. We would fall asleep quickly and slept through our first night in this strange place.

Tomorrow, we would soon discover there was more to both ourselves and this place we had fallen into…

* * *

And that was Chapter 3. I'm really cranking these things out.

Sorry if that last sentence is somewhat confusing. It referring that the fourth episode is when the Black Gears make their first appearance and begin introducing the children to a much wider conflict than a simple uncharted island.

Anyways, Chapter 4 hasn't been started yet, but it will be tomorrow. I'm aiming for a releasing of it sometime on May 15th, 2018 or May 16th, 2018.

Thanks for reading, and remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review so I know that you guys are watching, it gives me the inspiration to keep going (As well as the fact that I don't really like it when people just abandon the story.)

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	5. Red Hot! Birdramon!

Okay, Chapter 4 is now here. Sorry for the delay but I did say this would be uploaded on the 15th or 16th of May, 2018.

First, shoutouts! Thank you to follower **Aquisea** who is from Peru, so 'Gracias, mi amigo!' and a follow/fav from user **Gladius52** , thank you for being this story's first follower/fav. Finally, a thank you to beta-reader **Kayda-Starr** for her kind words, and who is also writing a quite an underused story idea (That idea is Hikari being with the group from the very start of the show) for her fanfic, **Digimon: Revised**.

Anyways, that's enough rambling. On with the Adventure!

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Red Hot! Birdramon!**

 _File Island. A-Day+1. Late Morning._

Somehow, we all managed to get plenty of sleep the night before even with the attack from Seadramon. The rest of the night had been all quiet as both Koushiro and Jou's shifts all went with no trouble. Still, with the whole rude awakening, we may have slept a little later than we probably should have. We spent the first few hours gathering our breakfast; we weren't using the supplies again so we saved another meal for later. After we finished eating, we got back on the move through the forest, hopeful we'd find other humans or a way back home. The forest we walked through was like the one before, however there were even more signs here than we encountered yesterday afternoon.

The day's trouble started so innocently. We had been walking through the forest until we began hearing a weird buzzing sound. My first concern was that it may have been Kuwagamon again, but it was quickly dispelled as the buzz tone didn't match. A quick look upward would also dismiss that theory. What flew through the sky above us looked like a very small black gear.  
"What was that?" Taichi questioned.  
"It looked like a gear." answered Yamato.  
"Are you sure it wasn't a flying saucer?" Sora asked.  
"Or it could have been a meteorite shaped like a gear." Mimi theorized.  
"Not likely, Mimi-san. The trajectory of that object didn't look like it was falling, but rather flying." Koushiro said.  
"Well, it was too small to be a plane of any kind, so scratch that off the list." I added.  
"Whatever it was, something didn't feel right about it…" worried Jou. Our train of thought was broken as we heard the snap of branch, the same one that Takeru was climbing over and sent him tumbling on the ground.  
"Oww…" Takeru painfully said. Both Yamato and Taichi ran over to hat wearing boy with Taichi helping him up.  
"Are you okay, Takeru?" Taichi asked.  
"That hurt! But I'm okay, I'll bear with it." He declared, trying to prove his toughness and maturity for one so young.  
"You don't have to. It's okay to say that it still hurts." assured Sora. Takeru's face somewhat lightened as he felt the need to keep a brave face in front of the rest us was not truly necessary.  
"Okay… Actually, it hurts a little."  
"Are you okay, Takeru?!" Patamon worried, a little late to the party.  
"What's the point of saying that now?" Tentomon pointed out, to our humor.

"C'mon, let's get going!" Sora said.  
"Yeah, we won't get anywhere by complaining." Yamato added.  
"That's fine and all… but none of us really know where to go…" pointed out Taichi.  
"That might be so, but…" Sora trailed off as Piyomon affectionately nuzzled against Sora.  
"I'm perfectly happy anywhere as long as Sora is there!" cheered the pink bird.  
"That can't be… Even if you're a hundred percent happy, it'll be troublesome for me. I can't be held responsible." Sora complained. Sora was kind of a strange girl in the time that both Taichi and I have known her. She always fashioned herself as more of a tomboy-ish type, despite her caring attitude. Sometimes it felt that there were two Soras, one who was a tomboy who loved nothing more than soccer and hanging out with her friends; and another Sora who was looking out for the well-being of others just like a mother cares for her child.  
"'Hundred percent?'" Piyomon questioned.  
"N-Never mind, don't worry about it!"  
"'Be held responsible?'"  
"I said, never mind! Don't worry about it." insisted Sora as the rest of began to move out.  
"I want to know more about what you're talking about, Sora! Tell me! Okay?"  
"You don't need to know that."  
"Stop playing around, you two!" Yamato shouted to get their attention. The last thing right now is for us to get separated.  
"You're so relaxed." Taichi faintly insulted.  
"I'm not playing around because I want to!" Sora defended as the two of them caught up.

"Piyomon is a very sociable Digimon." informed Tentomon.  
"I see. So each Digimon has a different personality." Koushiro summed up.  
"Sora! Sora!" Piyomon sang.  
" _Can I really get along with a mushy Digimon like her?"_ Sora thought.  
"I tell you guys, this place is just weird. I mean, for example, this whole forest is just littered with signs from all over. German, Russian, Spanish, American, British, French, I think that one is Korean, Japanese." I said.  
"Yeah, it's like someone just dumped all the road signs of the world in this forest." Jou observed.  
"Is it too much to ask for one of these signs to point the way?" complained Mimi.  
"Hey, look! We can get out of the forest!" Yamato exclaimed. He was right, there was the forest's edge and beyond it was a long field of telephone poles with no wires connecting them. Yet another weird sight for this place.

 _File Island. A-Day+1. Afternoon._

We had ourselves lunch on the forest's edge before we could go any further. However, we were unable to really find any nearby food so we had dip into our food supply. After that, we began traveling through the phone pole valley, only to discover we may have wandered from a warm forest into a hot desert, at high noon I might add, so it was even hotter.  
"This is like the African savannah I saw on TV." Koushiro observed.  
"I'd like to point out, Koushiro, that a savannah is grassy and has trees. We're clearly walking through a desert." I stated.  
"Well, if it is in fact a savannah and not a desert, does that mean there'll be lions and giraffes here?" Taichi asked.  
"Don't know. It'll be nice if we saw normal animals like that thought." wished Yamato.  
"There aren't any animals like that here." Gabumon informed.  
"That's correct! There are only Digimon here." added Tentomon.  
"Only Digimon, huh?" said a disheartened Taichi.  
"Hey, Koushiro, were there telephone poles in the savannah you saw?" Yamato asked with a touch of sarcasm.  
"No, there weren't." He responded, oblivious to the aforementioned sarcasm.  
"There must be some people nearby. There has to be!" Jou said for like the tenth time since we've arrived to this place.  
"But it could end up the same as the phone booths at the beach, or the trolley at the lake." Taichi reminded.  
"No, that can't be! There absolutely, _positively_ , are people here!" Jou declared while the rest of us just stared.  
"Koushiro-han! Koushiro-han!" whispered Tentomon. "I'm telling you, there are only _Digimon_ here."

"Where can we be?" Mimi asked with a surprising chipper look on her face. Maybe her hat is keeping her somewhat cool, though I am curious what's with the Stetson. I'll ask later. "Tada!" She showed off the compass that was in her hand. We all gathered around to see which direction we were in only for the compass to start spinning like crazy. "Ah, what's going on?!"  
"Amazing. This looks like sand, but it's actually powdered iron!" Koushiro informed us while holding some of the ground in his hand. "That's what's attracting the magnet!"  
"You mean, all this is iron!? Unbelievable, whoever controls this place could suddenly have quite the monopoly in the iron industry." I said.  
"We really must have come to an unbelievable place." Sora mentioned while looking towards the sky.  
"It's also very hot here." Koushiro stated the obvious. "We should get some water as soon as we can."  
"Yeah, you're right." agreed Taichi.  
"WHERE IS THIS PLACE?!" Mimi screamed to the heavens, making the rest of us cover our ears.

"So hot…" Taichi moaned as we kept walking through the iron desert.  
"Maybe we should have stayed in the forest…" Jou admitted.  
"At this rate, we'll overheat…" stated Yamato. Gomamon began making some noises, indicating that he was not doing too well.  
"Are you hot, Gomamon?" Jou asked.  
"I want ice… or at least some water…" The seal could only say.  
"I'd like to say that I feel fine right now." Guilmon informed us.  
"Yeah, well that's because you're a cold blooded lizard. You're built for this weather." I told him.  
"Technically, he's more of a dinosaur than a simple lizard." Koushiro interrupted.  
"Completely missing the point, Koushiro."  
"Want to wear my hat, Palmon?" Mimi offered.  
"Thank you…"  
"There. It looks good on you!"  
"Mimi-chan… Never mind." Sora started to say before she dropped it.  
"Sora, Sora! Let's keep walking!" Piyomon cheered.  
"You're so energetic."  
"Sora, Sora!"  
"Oh, just cut it out! Right now, I'm really thirsty, tired, and I'm sick of walking, so stop clinging to me! It's making me even more tired!" Sora snapped. It was clear she was fed up with Piyomon's affection.  
"Sora is tired… I'm sorry. I'll keep quiet." Piyomon said disappointingly.  
"Fine, fine! You can walk with me." She apologized. Piyomon perked up immediately.  
"I'm so happy! Sora, I love you!" She said as she once again nuzzled against Sora's leg. It's actually kind of heartwarming.

"Man, we keep walking and walking, and nothing comes into sight. Maybe, its best if we go back to the forest." Yamato suggested. Jou agreed immediately. However, Taichi wasn't so quick to give up and began looking forward with his telescope.  
"Wait just a moment." It appeared he could see something as he kept saying 'Huh'. "It's a village!" What?!  
"Hang on!" I shouted as I pulled out my binoculars just to confirm that Taichi wasn't seeing a mirage. I could see a grassy ridgeline and a large ship that was sticking out of a large pond. Weird. But the more important thing was a bunch of huts that were clumped together in front of the ship. "He's right! It is a village!"  
"See, see, _see_?" Jou bragged. "A village! There must be people here!"  
"In any case, it's worth checking out." Koushiro said.  
"I'm so thirsty, Palmon…" Mimi told the plant Digimon.  
"I'm so hungry…" moaned Takeru.  
"Me too, me too!" Patamon added.  
"Alright then! Let's head to that village!" Taichi declared.  
"Yeah!" The rest of us cheered as we began the final march towards the village, hopeful to find other humans, food, water, and shelter.

 _Pyocomon Village, File Island. A-Day+1. Afternoon._

Life has a funny way of pulling the rug out from under you. As we began to approach the village, we soon came to discover a few things about it. One, there were no humans. Two, the huts were much smaller than they looked from the distance, and three, the reason for the small huts was that this village was occupied a bunch of Pyocomon, Piyomon's earlier form. We were extremely disappointed about the discovery but there was a bit of good news, at least the Pyocomon seemed to be really friendly.  
"Okay, so it was a Pyocomon village." Taichi stated, trying hard not to get blamed, even though it wasn't his fault in the slightest. We just set our hopes way too high.  
"Well, at least we're out of that desert, so I guess it's not all bad, Taichi." I assured him.  
"Pyocomon! You're all my friends!" Piyomon declared.  
"Hey, hey! What kind of Digimon are you?" One of the Pyocomon asked in reference to Sora.  
"Me?" questioned Sora.  
"No, no! These people aren't Digimon, they're something called humans! They're really nice." Piyomon clarified. Pray you don't meet the rest of humanity, Piyomon.  
"Humans?" "They're not Digimon?" "Really nice?" It was obvious that the Pyocomon had a lot of questions.  
"I was expecting people to be here…" Jou complained.  
"Everything is all Pyocomon-size." Taichi pointed out.  
"This reminds me of a fairy tale my mom read to me when I was little." Mimi remembered, though I don't know what story that would be. When it came to stories at bed, I had Dad read me Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy… I was a Star Wars geek at a very young age.  
"I thought we would be able to stay the night here but it looks impossible." said Yamato.  
"We can't even enter their houses." Koushiro added.  
"We can somehow fit in there." Patamon observed.  
"But not humans..." Jou moaned.  
"Okay, so we rough it like we did last night, this time close to the village, problem solved." I concluded.  
"Ross-san is right! I can sleep outside!" Takeru agreed.

"Piyomon, how did you evolve?" One of the Pyocomon asked their evolved friend who was currently checking out some of the huts.  
"I was able to because I was with Sora, y'know." Piyomon answered as Sora took a seat next to another one of the houses.  
"'Y'know'? What's that mean? Are those words that all Piyomon use?"  
"No, those are words that Sora uses. I learn so many words being with her!"  
"Oh, I get it! But why were you able to evolve? Can you evolve just by being with a human?"  
"It must be because I had to protect Sora!" Piyomon theorized.  
"Protect me?" Sora mumbled. "How can she say that, being as lovey-dovey as she is? But, come to think of it…" She must have thought back to yesterday with Greymon and Garurumon. _"Then… whenever I'm in danger…"_ She thought. "It can't be!"  
"Sora! All of the Pyocomon have offered to give us a feast!" Piyomon declared.  
"R-Really? Yahoo!" The news of food boosted everyone's morale.  
"A million thanks to the Pyocomon-sama!" Jou cheered.  
"I'm so hungry!" Mimi informed.  
"Let's eat 'til we're stuffed!" said Taichi. That is something I look forward to doing.

"I wonder what food they'll give us." Koushiro said to himself.  
"Water, water, water!" Takeru repeated. "There's a fountain over there! Water, water!" Sure enough, there was surprisingly large fountain, at least of the Pyocomon.  
"This fountain is connected to a water source in Miharashi Mountain! It's really yummy!" One of the Pyocomon said.  
"This is the famous delicious water from Miharashi Mountain." Tentomon informed though I'm not sure if he knew he was just repeating what had been said.  
"Miharashi Mountain?" Takeru asked.  
"The mountain!" The Pyocomon yelled.  
"The mountain?" The said mountain they were referring to was a large forest covered mountain that was surrounded by a different forest than the one we were in this morning. I just hope we don't have to scale that thing. Myself and the others gathered by the fountain, ready to drink from it before it suddenly stopped flowing. Typical, just our luck.

Suddenly, the whole fountain burst into a geyser of fire! Thankfully, no one was burned by it.  
"No! I was so thirsty! I didn't even get a sip yet!" Mimi complained.  
"What's going on?" questioned Taichi.  
"Why is this happening?" A Pyocomon said.  
"D-Don't worry! There's a pond over there!" Another one assured.  
"Let's take a look." ordered Taichi. To our utter shock, the pond that had the ship in it was completely drained. We then tired a different approach with the village's well. Taichi threw the bucket down the well and waited for the sound of it crashing into some water. After a few seconds, the sound of the bucket hitting solid earth filled the well.  
"Did we hit the bottom?" Taichi wondered.  
"Pull it up anyway." Yamato said.  
"Gotcha." Taichi pulled it up to find that the bucket was now gone and the end of the rope was now singed. Just then, like the fountain before, the well exploded with flames to the panic of both Taichi and the Pyocomon.

"Wait a second. I saw something land on Miharashi Mountain earlier!" One of the Pyocomon informed.  
"Could it be that thing we saw earlier?" Yamato theorized.  
"That black gear…" Koushiro muttered.  
"But what does a black gear landing in Miharashi Mountain have to do with this?" Sora asked.  
"Wh-What's going on?" panicked Jou.  
"The water source for this area is located in Miharashi Mountain. So if anything were to happen there, all of our water would be gone!" A Pyocomon said.  
"I see…" Koushiro understood.  
"Meramon lives on Miharashi Mountain. Meramon should be protecting the mountain." Okay, that answers that, but what kind of Digimon is Meramon exactly?  
"Miharashi Mountain, eh? Let's take a look." Taichi looked through his telescope. "Wait! What's that!?" A large fire began roaring from the top of the mountain and to the naked eye; one could see a bright spot that was slowly going down from the top.  
"Meramon is coming down from the mountain!" "Meramon is coming down!" "Why?" "He's not acting like he usually is!" The frightened Pyocomon shouted. I wanted to know what Meramon was so a quick look from my binoculars gave me the answer. Meramon was shaped like a man, but completely engulfed in fire. Best way to describe him was that he was like Johnny Storm, The Human Torch.  
"That doesn't look good!" I said.  
"I've heard rumors about Meramon." Gomamon informed. "He's an ever-burning Flame Digimon who burns up everything he touches in battle with his Burning Fist!"  
Despite the sounds of the fire from the well and fountain and the cries of the Pyocomon, we could hear the sound of screaming off in the distance towards the direction of Meramon.  
"He's saying something…" said Sora.

After a few minutes of watching Meramon running down the mountain, he reached the forest with it becoming consumed in flames. All we could do was stare in shock and do nothing as he kept running towards our direction. Soon, he had exited the forest and was now running through the iron desert. By that moment, we knew he was coming for us!  
"EVERYONE! RUN!" Taichi ordered. We didn't need to be told twice as we begun to evacuate the entire village. I was somewhat surprised with how many Pyocomon that resided here, but the thought was quickly put aside as we fled towards the ship, adrenaline pumping through our bodies. We escorted the Pyocomon to the sunken ship where they could take refuge in.  
"Hide in here!" "You'll be safe here!" "Hurry! Hurry!" "Keep going, you're almost there!" Taichi, myself, Sora, and Koushiro were at the hole that led into the sunken ship while Yamato, Mimi, Jou, and Takeru were on deck organizing the Pyocomon. The swarm of the small pink Digimon seamed never ending and it was clear we were running out of time.

"Piyomon…" Sora muttered as she turned her attention towards the village. Sure enough, standing on the pond's edge was Piyomon leading the way Pyocomon by motioning them to the ship. She was willing to stay behind just to save the entire village… an act that deserves some sort of medal. "That idiot… she's helping out her friends instead… Piyomon!" Sora cried out as she began running from the ship back towards Piyomon!  
"Sora! What's wrong?" Taichi asked.  
"It's Piyomon! She's staying back for the others!" I told him.  
"What? If she doesn't start moving, she'll be a goner and Sora as well!" Another look at the pond edge showed that the last of the village had been evacuated as the remaining stragglers were being led to the ship. Piyomon looked content with what she had done, proud that she had helped those that had been her previous form. Unfortunately, it looked like Meramon had finally reached us as he walked up behind Piyomon with a sinister look on his face.

"Piyomon, behind you!" warned Sora. Piyomon quickly turned around to see Meramon's hand flying towards her and was knocked off the ledge into the dried up pond below. "Piyomon!" Sora shouted as she ran towards the bird that was now rolling down the pond wall. Thankfully, Sora managed to catch her.  
"Sora, you came to save me…" Piyomon said.  
"Of course I did! You're an important friend of mine."  
"Thank you, Sora!" The moment however had to be ruined as Meramon began forming a ball of fire in his palm and it was clear that Sora was in his crosshairs. "Sora, look out! This time, it's my turn to save you!" Piyomon stated as she took off flying towards the fire Digimon.  
"Magical Fire!" Piyomon deployed her signature attack and hit Meramon square in the chest and it looked like it actually did some damage. "Magical Fire! Magical Fire!" She launched two more attacks but it was now clear that Meramon was no longer playing around.  
"Piyomon can't win on her own!" Taichi observed. Several of the Digimon began running towards the fight in an effort to assist Piyomon. Taichi, Koushiro, and I all had the same idea and followed them.

"Burning Fist!" Meramon roared as he threw a fireball from his hands. Piyomon just barely dodged the attack but it was still too close for her as she began falling back towards the ground.  
"Piyomon!" Sora cried out as she fell to her knees. "Piyomon, you…"  
"Hey! Cover Piyomon, everybody!" ordered Taichi.  
"Go get him, Tentomon!" Koushiro said.  
"Back 'em up, Guilmon!" I added. Meramon begun laughing at us in a way that said 'You really think you can beat me?'  
"Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" "Petit Thunder!" "Petit Fire!" "Air Shot!" The Digimon cried their respective attacks towards Meramon, however, this turned out to be a very bad mistake as he just absorbed the attacks and grew bigger. To sum it all up, we're in trouble.  
"I'm burning up!" Meramon yelled. Wait; is he in pain from his own fire?  
"Fire doesn't hurt Meramon!" Taichi observed.  
"All we're doing is making him stronger!" I worried.  
"He's sucking in everyone's energy." pointed out Koushiro.  
"I'm burning up!" Meramon yelled again as he began to slide down the walls of the dried up pond.

"Sora…" Piyomon moaned she got back up and saw our precarious situation. "Sora is in danger… I can't lose from this!" She declared as she began to glow with light. An eleventh-hour evolution!  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" roared Birdramon. The pink bird had evolved into a much larger bird that resembled the legendary phoenix. Great, now I got Cheap Trick's _'Mighty Wings'_ stuck in my head.  
"Piyomon!" Sora yelled as she suddenly got back into the fight. Birdramon's first move was to ram into Meramon and throw him out of the pond as she flew upward before dropping him on the pond edge.  
"Piyomon…?" Sora said in sheer awestruck. "She evolved into Birdramon!" Birdramon began flying across the battlefield in order to distract the attacking Digimon.  
"Burning Fist!" Meramon threw another one of his fireballs towards Birdramon and hit her in the back of her right wing.  
"Birdramon!" Sora cried with worry. Thankfully, it looked like she just shrugged off the attack before she flew towards Meramon. He kept throwing his attack to the large bird but was doing little effect in terms of stopping the phoenix as she resisted one Burning Fist after another. "Birdramon, keep it up!"  
"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon shouted as a large array of fiery projectiles were sent from her wings and hit Meramon directly in his chest. He fell over clutching his chest as he rapidly lost height before a black gear flew out of his back and disintegrated in midair.  
"That was… a black gear!" Koushiro exclaimed.  
"Yeah." Taichi agreed.  
"That must have been the reason for Meramon's madness and the water problems." I theorized.  
"Piyomon evolved into Birdramon to save me…" Sora said as Birdramon reverted to Piyomon and flew back to Sora.  
"Sora, Sora, Sora!" Piyomon cried as the two began to embrace one another.  
"Piyomon! Piyomon! Thank you! Really!"  
"I only did what was natural! Because I love you, Sora!" If there was something I noticed earlier today was that Sora's attitude towards Piyomon was more distant and somewhat cold. After this fight though, I think those two will get along quite well from now on.

 _Pyocomon Village, File Island._ _A-Day+1. Dusk._

The next few hours were spent getting the Pyocomon off the ship and back to their village while also keeping an eye on Meramon just in case he would start up again. Thankfully, it looked like he was calmed down. The fires he had cause stopped burning and the water began flowing through the village again. It was close to sundown before he started talking.  
"Meramon, have you come to your senses now?" A Pyocomon asked.  
"Why…" He muttered.  
"Thank goodness, Meramon, you're back to normal! But why were you running wild, Meramon? What happened?"  
"A gear fell from the sky… and then…"  
"You don't know either? Well, at least it's all over. Meramon, please protect Miharashi Mountain like you always have!" After that, we went out of our way to see Meramon out of the village and back to the Mountain.  
"Don't turn back into a bad Digimon anymore!" Taichi called out.  
"Keep protecting the mountain!" One of the Pyocomon added before we heard the sound of a stomach rumbling. It was clearly time for dinner now.  
"Oh yeah! The Pyocomon promised to give us a feast!" Piyomon reminded. After a long day like this, a good meal was definitely needed.  
"I'm still hungry." Takeru groaned.  
"Leave the menu to us!" The villagers announced.

A few minutes later, they brought out our food. Once again, our expectations were shattered as the meal they brought out looked like… what is this, bird food? The Digimon didn't mind so much as they happily dug in.  
" _This_ is a feast?" Taichi questioned.  
"Sora, why aren't you eating? It's good!" Piyomon encouraged.  
"Yeah, yeah! Eat up, Mimi!" Palmon added.  
"But humans can't normally eat things like this…" Sora muttered.  
"But… I'll eat it anyway!" Takeru boldly declared as he began to eat it.  
"Well, it beats starving." I grumbled as I took a small handful and placed it in my mouth. As I began to chew, I noticed the taste seemed familiar. Was that grits I was tasting? Well, at least it wasn't awful as I started to eat more.  
"No use fighting an empty stomach." Yamato sighed as he also ate the food.  
"Let's dig in!" Taichi said.  
"Are you serious?!" asked Sora.  
"If you chew it enough, it's not so bad." Jou informed.  
"No! Now I really want to go home!" whined Mimi. We could only laugh at her comment as it was kind of funny for her to complain about a free meal.  
" _Piyomon saved me from harm… She was right. She really did evolve because I was in danger."_ Sora thought.

As we began to settle in for the night, one question stuck on our minds, what was waiting for us tomorrow…

* * *

And that's Chapter 4 in the books. I'm keeping on a good roll.

So the next chapter is when things will start taking a bit of a change. I want to include as many of the major scenes as possible so the point of view will begin shifting from Ross to some of the characters. It'll still be told mostly from Ross's POV throughout much of this story but I don't really want to miss anything. The hard part will be trying to get into the heads of some of these characters.

Now for the release date I'm shooting for is either tomorrow the 17th of May at the earliest or at latest May 19th as the 18th is my birthday.

So until then, remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review so I know you guys want more.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	6. Electric Shock! Kabuterimon!

Alright! Chapter 5! Sorry for putting this off until a few hours before the deadline, but I sometimes get easily distracted.

Shoutout to **Kayda-Starr** for giving this story its first review and a kind one at that. Thanks. The whole Sora/Piyomon not getting along thing is usually not mentioned a lot in stories because the Dub went over it with Sora and Biyomon being good friends from the start. I've noticed lately that I've been harping on the English Dub but I do it because I care.

Also, as I said at the end of the last chapter, the POV's will begin changing now, but Ross will still be the focus of much of the views.

Anyways, with that out of the way, here's Chapter 5.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Electric Shock! Kabuterimon!**

 _Gear Savannah, File Island. A-Day+2. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

I didn't sleep well last night. We didn't have problem like we did the first night, sleeping near the Pyocomon Village, it was all quite during the watches. No, the trouble with sleep which I was sure I wasn't the only one with this on their mind was what going on back home. More than likely, the teachers realized we vanished at least a few hours after the snow storm had stopped. After that, they probably called our homes and I'm sure our parents fear the worst. I wonder what happened with Dad though. Did he find out on the plane to Tokyo or when he got to the apartment? I could see it now, he opens up the door and Yuuko-san runs up and hugs him and says _'Oh, Phil! We're so glad you're alive and safe now, but our kids have gone missing!'_ This all truly started when we picked up those damned things that fell from the sky! If we had stayed in the cabin, we probably wouldn't be in the place we are now. Well, I guess there's no point in complaining. It is what it is. All we can do is try to both stay alive and find a way home.

After spending breakfast eating more of the Pyocomon's food, we set out on our way in the journey to find a way home. We walked through what the Pyocomon called the Gear Savannah like we had yesterday afternoon. As it turns out, Koushiro was right about it being a savannah; especially once we reached an area with more grasslands and trees which matched the typical geography of a savannah. We marched through the area for about an hour before the fatigue began to set in for some of us; pecifically Takeru, Mimi, Palmon, and Gomamon.  
"No more…" Mimi moaned while on her knees.  
"I can't … take another step…" Takeru ached.  
"Looks like they're at their limit." Yamato observed.  
"I thought they were doing much better yesterday." I said.  
"Well, we _have_ been walking constantly." Sora pointed out.  
"All right! Let's take a break here." concluded Taichi. I guess a rest would be good for the time being, even if some of us could keep going. The exhausted kids took a rest next to a lone tree while Koushiro began typing away at his laptop.

"It still doesn't work…" Koushiro disappointingly said. Taichi overheard this and ran over to Koushiro before pulling the laptop away from the boy.  
"At times like these, you have to hit it like this! Then it'll work! Work, work, work!" Taichi informed as he started hitting the laptop. Yeah, Taichi was never that great with electronics. Koushiro predictably freaked out and quickly got the laptop away from Taichi before he could do more harm to it.  
"Please, stop that!"  
"I was just trying to help."  
"We understand that, but you wouldn't want other people touching your valued possessions, would you?" lectured Sora.  
"Besides, Taichi, it's not like the _Millennium Falcon_ ; giving it a whack won't get it to start." I added. Taichi could only grumble at the thought that he was wrong. Stubborn and hardheaded were two words that could easily be referred to when it comes to Taichi. He turned his attention away from us before he gasped in surprise when he looked off to his right.

"What's that?" He asked as he began running way from the rest of us.  
"Taichi, wait up!" Agumon hurried along.  
"What's up with Taichi?" wondered Jou.  
"Must be the bathroom." Yamato guessed.  
"Yes! It works!" Koushiro cheered. It looked like he finally got his laptop to work. "But it's running even though the batteries are dead… Why…?"  
"Hey, you guys!" Taichi called out. We ran over to him to see what the commotion was about and soon saw over the hill a titanic factory that was billowing dark smoke from its towers.  
"It's a factory!" Jou exclaimed.

We walked for over half a kilometer before we finally reached the factory. If we thought it was huge from the hill, then we were under guessing as it was almost as large as the downtown of a major city. As we went deeper into the factory, a few things were registering with us. First, we could hear all the machinery working and it echoed through the walls. That was the main problem, though; it was too quiet even with the rumbling of industrialization. There didn't seem to be even a soul in the area. We soon came across an assembly line that was fully automated and putting together something of unknown design.  
"What are they making?" Takeru asked his brother.  
"Don't know. We'll have to check this place out to see…"  
"If we're going to explore, we should also see if anyone's here! In a factory this large, someone _has_ to be here!" declared Jou. After that we split into two groups. Group A would be Taichi, Sora, myself, and Jou and our respective Digimon who would look to see if anyone was around. Group B would comprise of Yamato, Takeru, Mimi, and Koushiro along with their Digimon and check to see what this factory was making.

"Hello?" Taichi called out, hoping for a response.  
"Hello, is anyone here?" Sora joined in.  
"Anybody around?" I shouted.  
"Anyone?" yelled Jou.  
"Maybe no one's here…" Sora admitted. Just our luck, we can't seem to find any sign of familiar civilization.  
"That can't be! There must be people somewhere working these machines!" Jou refused to give up. Piyomon then gave us a 'Huh?', signifying something was up.  
"What's up, Piyomon?" Sora asked.  
"I can hear something." We listened and heard the sound of someone moaning in pain.  
"Could it be a person?" Taichi wondered.  
"Only one way to find out…" I said as we began running towards the source of the moaning.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

While Taichi and some of the others were searching for any human life in this place, I was leading the rest of us on a mission to find out what the heck was being built in this place. Ever since we've arrived on File Island, it's been one weird thing after another. I swear, this place is teasing us with all these signs of humans only to reveal nothing. As we walked down a corridor, we came across a door marked 'Power Supply R.' in English.  
"This is the power supply room." Koushiro observed.  
"Then, let's take a look inside." I said as I opened the door. What we saw inside looked to be like a giant double-A battery.  
"A giant battery and a motor!" awed Koushiro. "This is what's making all of the machines run?" He walked up to the battery and began to get a feel for it, like he was looking for something. He kept this up for several minutes.  
"Are you still examining it?" I asked him.  
"Yes. If you want to look at more of the factory, please go ahead without me. I'll stay here a little longer." While it probably wasn't a good idea to split up even further than we already have, it was clear his mind was set on this whole battery and power thing. I merely shrugged and started to walk away with Mimi, Takeru, and our Digimon following me out while leaving Koushiro and Tentomon behind.

 _P.O.V. - Ross McGlathery_

We ran down a few corridors as we heard the moaning getting louder, indicating that we were on the right track. We passed by a hallway before Agumon stopped us.  
"Look at that!" He pointed out. We saw a large object lying on the ground and it was caught up in some of the gears.  
"What can it be? Looks like it got caught between the gears of the machine." Sora observed. Upon closer inspection, it was not a thing but rather someone else.  
"A-A robot?" Taichi questioned. The robot was almost completely mechanized except there were a few elements of flesh on around its eyes and jaw, kinda like Robocop.  
"Is this a Digimon?" I asked.  
"Yep, that's Andromon!" Gomamon said.  
"Wait, this is a Digimon too?" Taichi was somewhat surprised by the answer.  
"Yeah, a really good Digimon." assured Agumon.  
"He's also really highly evolved! After all, he is a Cyborg Digimon whose entire body is made out of machinery. He's devastating to his enemies with his Spiral Sword and Gatling Missiles." Piyomon added.  
"Who's evolved more, him or Greymon?" asked Taichi.  
"Andromon is a higher evolutionary level than Greymon or anyone else we've ran into. That level is referred to as the 'Perfect Level' " Guilmon informed. Wait, there's a level even higher than the Adult Level?  
"Either way, it's not a human…" Jou mumbled disappointedly.  
"Let's help him out." Sora said. Taichi and I nodded as we began to pull Andromon out from the gears.

Taichi, Agumon, myself, and Guilmon pulled on Andromon's right while Sora, Jou, Piyomon, and Gomamon pulled on the left.  
"Heave! Heave! Heave! Heave!" Taichi ordered as we pulled on the android Digimon again but he just wasn't budging. Taichi then lost his grip and fell backwards onto a lever. The lever activated the gears that Andromon was entangled in and they started cranking. We pulled on Andromon again and we finally managed to slide him out. Andromon began moaning again, but he wasn't coming to.  
"Andromon's not waking up." Agumon observed.  
"In times like this, we should hit it…!" Oh, for the love of God, Taichi! I quickly grabbed his arm before he could bring it down.  
"What did I say earlier, man?" I asked him as it was clear he forgot. Unfortunately, it appeared he was influencing Agumon as the orange dinosaur gave Andromon a whack on the head. The rest of us just looked on in sheer dumbstruck at what just happened. Taichi then gave an embarrassed and 'trying to claim innocence' smile. "I shudder to think what will happen when you have kids."  
"Don't do that! Machines aren't something you should hit!" Jou told Agumon.  
"That's right! You might have broken something inside!" Sora added.

Apparently, it looked like we were right about not hitting him because his eyes opened and turned blue. Then, in what felt like a flash, he grabbed Sora by the ankle as he got up and towered over us.  
"W-Wait! What's going on?!" Sora cried.  
"Intruder secured." said Andromon's cold and emotionless voice.  
"What are you doing?" Taichi accused. Clearly he thought that Andromon should've been grateful for us helping him.  
"Sora!" Piyomon sprang in the action. "Magical Fire!" The attack didn't do much when it hit Andromon in the back of the head but it did cause him to throw Sora towards Taichi and Agumon who caught her.  
"Isn't he supposed to be a good Digimon?!" Jou asked, remembering what the others said earlier.  
"He should be…" Gomamon admitted.  
"Then why?!"  
"You guys have been real off with your information." I pointed out.  
"We're trying our best!" Guilmon claimed as Andromon approached us.  
"Agumon, Guilmon, aim at the ceiling, you two!" Taichi ordered. I looked up to a bunch of heavy steel beams being held on some thin wires above Andromon's head. Good eye, Taichi!  
"Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" The two launched their attacks and successfully burned the wires causing the beams to crash unto Andromon! That should hold him for a while.  
"Great! Now let's get outta here!" Taichi said. The rest of us nodded and we began running the other way and try to find the others.

 _P.O.V. - Yamato Ishida_

We continued down the assembly line but just like earlier, we can't make heads or tails exactly what this place is building. It just seems the system is putting random pieces of machinery together.  
"Just what are they making?" Takeru asked.  
"It must be something really amazing! Like a machine that reverses time, or something that'll make adults and children switch bodies!" Mimi guessed.  
"What? First of all, I'm fairly certain it's not a time machine, Mimi-chan. And what exactly was the second thing about?" I questioned her.  
"You said you wanted to know and I just gave you my ideas." I shook my head.  
"You're a strange girl…" After I said that, we continued on our way further down the line.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

After Yamato-san and the others left, I continued my examination of this large battery. I was curious to find out how exactly this was powering this entire plant. Tentomon was just sitting on the floor, keeping quiet and letting me work. A moment later I noticed something.  
"Huh? What's this door doing here?" How I didn't notice it earlier was beyond me. I opened up the door and to my confusion and amazement; I discovered that the entire thing was empty! It was a bright room that had hundreds of unknown symbols all around. It was truly a mystery, but I was always one for solving a tough problem and if I could just figure out the mystery of File Island, maybe I could find a way home for all of us.  
"What is this?" Tentomon asked, his voice echoing due to the confined and empty space. Looking closer at the symbols, they suddenly made sense to me.  
"It's a computer program." I informed him. I brought my hand up towards the symbol closest to me and moved my finger over it, accidently erasing part of it. So, these symbols weren't permanent. Strange. I then noticed the light go out. I must have inadvertently turned off the lights or shut down the entire factory…

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

As we ran down the corridor in our attempt to find and alert the others about Andromon, the lights suddenly went out.  
"Wh-What now?" Taichi said.  
"Did the breaker go out?" Jou wondered. We then heard behind us a mechanical footstep before seeing two small lights in the pitch black hallway. Guess Andromon got out of that mess quicker than we thought.  
"What do we do?" worried Sora.  
"It's dark, so maybe he can't see us." Taichi assumed.  
"And if he has inferred or night vision, what then?" I asked.  
"I don't know, but let's at least hold our breaths and move quietly." We started to sneak off, careful not to make any noise to alert the armored Digimon.  
"Intruders sighted." Damn it. Looks like I was right. "Spiral Sword!" We turned around to see a blue sickle beam coming right for us. We ducked to the side of a different hallway as the attack slammed the wall behind us and we went back to running for our lives.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

"Huh, all of the machines in the factory have stopped." Tentomon brought to my attention. Okay, so I was right about shutting down the factory by mistake.  
"Maybe I erased the wrong part of the program…" I admitted.  
"Maybe. Oh, what if you repair the part you erased?"  
"I can try that." It was hard to see with the lights out, but I could just make out the symbol that I had touched earlier in the dark. I pulled out a marker I had in my pocket and filled in the part that I erased. As soon as I did that, the lights came back on again. I proceeded to sit on the floor and got my laptop out in order to do some work. "This is really mysterious." I observed as I typed away on my computer.  
"What is?"  
"Batteries create electricity through a chemical reaction between a metal and a solution. But it's different here. The program written on this wall itself is what's giving the power." Again, the mystery keeps getting deeper.  
"This is kind of complicated."  
"I've got it!"  
"What are you doing now?"  
"I'm going to analyze this program. It's finally my laptop's turn to shine!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We kept up our running with Andromon in hot pursuit behind us as we began running over a catwalk that stood high above the ground.  
"We shouldn't have helped him!" Jou yelled.  
"This entire mess began because you two hit his head!" blamed Sora.  
"Hey, as you can see, we're extremely busy right now, so stuff it for later!" Taichi defended.  
"Agreed. Save it when we're not being pursued!" I added.  
"Intruders locked." Andromon announced. "Spiral Sword!" Unable to duck under the attack, we were forced to jump over the side and hang from the railings. Unfortunately, this made us sitting ducks just waiting for Andromon to knock us off. Taichi quickly sprang into action and jumped onto the controls of a nearby crane. Man, his situational awareness has been on point today, guess that explains why he's an Ace Striker in soccer.  
"Watch this!" He said as he moved the crane to latch on Andromon's back. "Up you go!" He pulled another lever that lifted Andromon high up and unable to continue the chase. "Come on! We've got to warn the others!" We all got back on the catwalk and followed him away from the dangling Digimon.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I continued typing away on my computer in an attempt to decipher these symbols. Tentomon was respectfully keeping it quiet as I needed my full attention. One thing I've actually been coming to like about him was just how similar we were in terms of gaining knowledge. He seemed especially curious to know more about me.  
"Koushiro-han, you look more excited that you've ever been before."  
"Really?"  
"Yes. Is this fun?" He asked.  
"I'm enjoying deciphering these codes and ancient characters."  
"You enjoy deciphering, huh…? Do you gain anything out of it?" What kind of question is that? Of course I gain out of it; if it gains an answer to a mystery, then it's very much worth it.  
"I might be able to solve the secrets that have been surrounding us. Like, what kind of world this is, and who you guys are."  
"But I have no interest in learning about where or who I am." Well, of course, you don't; you live in this place, but the rest of us humans want to go back our homes. The sooner this grand mystery is solved then the sooner we can go home.  
"Do you have interest in who you are, Koushiro-han?" As soon as he said that, I froze up. He was right about the whole 'Who am I?' question as I began to think back to that November night…

 _Izumi Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. November 17_ _th_ _, 1998. 2207 Hours._

I had been fast asleep for several hours until I woke up with the urge to go to the bathroom. It was dark all through the house except for a small crack of light that came from the living room. I heard the TV was on so I assumed Mom and Dad were still awake. As I walked by the living room, I soon heard the two of them talking… looking back, I kinda wished I stayed in bed.  
"Dear, when are we going to tell him the truth?" Mom said.  
"Just a little longer. Let's wait a little longer. It'll be too much of a shock to Koushiro right now." Dad told her.

 _Factory, File Island. A-Day+2. Morning._

"Koushiro-han. Koushiro-han!" Tentomon exclaimed bringing me back to reality.  
"Wh-What?"  
"It's acting strange there. Take a look." He pointed to the screen and he was right. The lines of code started to swirl all around the screen, something it should never do.  
"It's moving on its own!" I soon noticed the strange item that I was keeping on the harness of my backpack was flashing green on its screen. "And this is lighting up!" Soon the computer screen began showing what looked like a map of the factory before zooming out to produce a 3-D wireframe of the supposed island.  
"Hot! Hot, hot, hot! My body is burning up!" Tentomon exclaimed as some of the lines on his underside were bright blue and steam was coming out of them.  
"What's wrong?" I asked him, worried about his wellbeing.  
"I have no idea!" I grabbed the weird object and saw on its screen eight white bars flashing. "Hot, hot! I can't stand much more of this!" I suspected that this had something to do with my computer and if figuring out this island's secrets would harm Tentomon… then I guess I would have no choice but to put an end to the search.  
"Any more and it'll be dangerous." I told him as I turned off the laptop. Tentomon stopped moving and fell over before sighing in relief. Well, at least he's okay now. I then looked at the mysterious object and saw that it was off too. Guess there was nothing for it now.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

Okay. Now this place is making me mad. We went further down the assembly line hoping to finally figure out what the strange thing this place was making only to find that the factory would begin disassembling the object until it was spare parts again! We reached the roof of the building where I essentially summed everything up.  
"So from what I can tell, this factory has an assembly and disassembly line that move in one long process. Things that are built are taken apart, and things that are taken apart are built back together in one unending cycle."  
"So, what are they making?" Takeru asked.  
"Nothing. This factory is actually making nothing at all."  
"Guys! I've made an amazing discovery!" Koushiro called out as he ran up to us.  
"What is it?" I questioned.  
"I've discovered that this factory is run by a program that is providing it energy. In other words, things like data and programs in this world, which are normally nothing but information, have become real…" Koushiro concluded. Well, that sounded right, at least it would somewhat explain some of the things that were going on. But still, does that mean we're not even on Earth?

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We ran through a few more hallways before we found a doorway that led outside and by sheer luck, the others were waiting there.  
"Hey!" Taichi yelled.  
"Did you find something?" Yamato asked.  
"Run! Andromon is…!"  
"Andromon?" As soon as he said that, the said Digimon burst from the floor below us, cutting us off from each other.  
"Intruders locked." He coldly stated. "Gatling Missiles!" Andromon's chest opened up to reveal two large holes before animalistic missiles shot out. The others got out of the way, but Takeru was frozen with fear and didn't move as the missiles approached!  
"NO!" He screamed.  
"Takeru!" Yamato shouted.

"Leave it to me!" Gabumon reassured as he jumped to the rescue. "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" The Adult-Level wolf used his incredible speed to swat away the missiles and sent them off course, saving Yamato's little brother. One of the missiles exploded but the other one regain its control and headed for our group! The missile opened its mouth to reveal a gun and showed why it was called a Gatling Missile as rained bullets down around us. We rapidly backed up just to avoid getting torn to ribbons by it before Agumon found an opening and preformed his own evolution.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" The dinosaur announced as he destroyed the remaining missile with his tail.

The two Adult Digimon then charged towards Andromon in order to defeat him but the android simply turned the tables on them and threw them off of the building before he jumped down to follow.  
"Greymon!" "Garurumon!" Their respective partners called out as they both looked like they were weakened by the fall.  
"Spiral Sword!" Andromon's attack nailed Garurumon square in the forehead and the wolf cried out in pain.  
"Mega Flame!" Greymon launched his counter-attack but Andromon cut the attack in midair.  
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon came back with vengeance but like Greymon, the attack was merely swept away. At the same time, both groups had explained to one another what we had discovered in this place, but the main concern right now was focused on Andromon.  
"I see. He really is at a higher level." Yamato summed up.  
"His power and speed… everything is a level up from our Digimon." added Sora.  
"How can we win?" Taichi worried as Andromon slammed Greymon on top of Garurumon. We need to find a way to beat him or we're goners. "You can do it, Greymon!"  
"Hang in there, Garurumon!" Yamato encouraged.

"Koushiro-han. That program!" Tentomon said.  
"Are you sure?" Koushiro asked.  
"Yes!"  
"Okay." Koushiro pulled out his laptop and got to work. "Let's go!"  
"Wha-What is this? Power is surging through me!"  
"Are you alright?"  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" Another evolution save! Kabuterimon was a large blue bug with a grey head, four wings and arms, a powerful stinger, and a large horn on his head.

Andromon was clobbering the two other Digimon before Kabuterimon flew in from above and tried to ram the droid with his horn. Andromon jumped out of the way, but that didn't deter the large bug as he just flew back up for another run. He made contact with Andromon this time but was throw aside.  
"Gatling Missiles!" Kabuterimon flew up with the next wave of missiles following close behind.  
"Damn! Doesn't that Andromon have a weakness?" cursed Jou.  
"Well, his right leg is more flesh than steel so maybe we could…" I observed.  
"A weakness…" Koushiro muttered. "Kabuterimon! The right leg! Aim for Andromon's right leg!" The missiles exploded but the bug managed to escape with no damage before he flew by us, creating a huge back draft of wind.  
"Mega Blaster!" Kabuterimon roared as he launched a large ball of electrical energy towards Andromon. The attack hit, and suddenly, another black gear flew out of Andromon's leg into the air before disintegrating.  
"That's…" Mimi said as Andromon fell to his knees.  
"The evil has subsided…" He claimed.

We went down to the floor level that Andromon was at after the battle in order to check to see if he was alright and to see if he knew anything that might be able to help us get home. He proceeded to tell us the chain of events that led to his madness.  
"This all started because I was trying to get to a black gear that was stuck within the machine." So, Agumon whacking Andromon in the head had nothing to do with his anger towards us, but rather the gear.  
"A black gear?" Taichi asked.  
"Again?" Sora pointed out.  
"My dad always said, 'One's an anomaly, two's a trend.'" I added.  
"I'm grateful that you've saved me, but I've done an unspeakable thing." Andromon apologized.  
"Don't worry about it. It was a minor malfunction." Yamato quickly assured.  
"I'd like to answer your questions, but even I don't know the answers. The least I can do is give advice on how to leave this place." He motioned to a large hole nearby. "Take the sewers."  
"Thank you, Andromon." Taichi thanked.  
"I wish you the best of luck in returning to your world." After that, we headed on our way.

 _Sewers, File Island. A-Day+2. Late Morning._

We spent a little bit traveling down the pipe until we finally reached the actual sewers. Thankfully, the smell wasn't too repulsive, but we probably should find a way out soon. We were currently waiting for Mimi to get out of the tunnel.  
"Everyone's here, right?" Taichi asked for a headcount as we got on the move again.  
"This place is so clammy and disgusting." observed Yamato.  
"Yeah."  
"Hey, Koushiro-san." Takeru asked the second youngest member of our group. "You made Tentomon evolve with your laptop, right?"  
"That's right."  
"Can you make Patamon evolve?"  
"It just might work!"  
"Really?" Koushiro pulled out his laptop and did his thing before we heard the computer suddenly shut down.  
"Huh? That's odd…"  
"What's wrong? Is it broken?" Tentomon questioned.  
"I don't think so, but…"  
"You just need to give it a good whack!" Oh, not again, Taichi!  
"That's right!" Agumon added. The two of them charged towards Koushiro who quickly ducked which ended up making Taichi and Agumon hit each other upside the head.  
"Oww…" They both groaned.  
"Too bad we can't fix your carefree attitude just by hitting you." Sora moaned.  
"I've known the guy my whole life and that will never go away. Being carefree is just in his blood!" I humored as we all started laughing, before even Taichi and Agumon joined in as well.

Even with everything that had happened this morning, we'd come to learn that our troubles this day were not over yet…

* * *

And that was Chapter 5! Hopefully, I can get pretty far in this story before classes start again in August.

Anyways a few things to leave off with. First, before I finished this, I thought of a perfect quote for Andromon that I kinda feel bad for leaving out. _'He's more machine now than man. Twisted and evil.'_ So, yeah.

Secondly, that 'One's an anomaly, two's a trend' line is actually from Republic Commando which is kind of anachronistic as it was said in 2005 and not 1999 but having it as a quote Ross's dad once said, it should be fine, but I'll leave that to you.

Finally, a little visual for you guys. During the credits for the first half of the season during the ending song 'I Wish', which can be seen here on Youtube:

watch?v=B6vGCaVy7ng

Imagine Ross giving a salute in between Yamato and Takeru with Gigimon, Guilmon, and Growmon in between the buildings.

So that's that. Next chapter should be on the 20th or 21st of May. Remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review to keep me informed and take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	7. Evolutionary Knock-Out! Togemon!

Here we are, Chapter 6! Sorry for being last minute on the deadline but I got distracted with some things.

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for A) Being a fan from the begining, and B) Giving me quite a fun disscussion yesterday.

One thing I must mention, is well there is going to be a discovery about a character that I hope doesn't upset anyone, at least in terms of nitpicking, you'll see.

That out of the way, let's keep this train going!

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Evolutionary Knock-Out! Togemon!**

 _Sewers, File Island. A-Day+2. Late Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

I took point as we marched down the sewers. No one was really saying anything so I thought it was finally a good time to pull out my CD player and listen to some tunes. As I put my headphones on, apparently Taichi and the others were starting a game where they'd sing a song and have the Digimon try to sing off of them using the last sound of the song. After a few minutes, my CD got to a point where I just had to sing.  
" _Hey, driver! Where we going? I swear, my nerves are showing! Set your hopes up way too high! The living's in the way we-"_ I stopped as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and took off my headphones. "What? Was I off key?"  
"No, you sang fine but you ruined our game." Taichi said.  
"Sorry." Suddenly, Sora made a surprised noise before she brought her hands to her mouth and started shaking. All of us just stared at her wondering what had happened.  
"Are you okay?" worried Taichi.  
"What happened?" Yamato asked.  
"Some water fell on me…" Sora answered as another drop of water fell on her shoulder.  
"Your shirt got dirtied." pointed out Koushiro as Sora rubbed it out.

"I want to do laundry…" Sora muttered as tears started to fill her eyes. Once again there's that dual Sora again. Wanting to do laundry isn't really something that a tomboy says.  
"Me too… I want to relax in the bath…" Taichi said. Looks like being homesick finally caught up with us.  
"I…" Takeru didn't even say anything else; he just motioned his fingers as if he was just playing with a controller.  
"Takeru, this isn't the time to be thinking about video games!" Yamato laughed, but he was the only one. "I guess I can't laugh at him. What I want right now is some nice sizzling barbeque… I want to eat it 'til I'm stuffed!"  
"Shoot, all I really want to do right now is kick back on the couch and watch some of my movies…" I told them. I really just wanted to finally see Dad after so long, but I kept that to myself. We're depressed enough as is.  
"Don't laugh, but I miss studying. I want to do loads of homework!" Jou informed us.  
"That's an odd one." Mimi responded. "I want to drink some ice cold Cola!"  
"Mimi-san, that sounds good! I'd like that too!" excitedly said Takeru.  
"Yeah!"  
"I…I want to send emails back and forth with my friends." Koushiro finished. After that, we were all quiet and bummed out.  
"Everyone's tired." Gabumon told his fellow Digimon.  
"How sad." Gomamon added.

Another few moments of quietness, we heard a noise coming from further down the tunnel, back the way we had come from. It sounded like… chittering, squeaking?  
"Those voices…" Tentomon alerted. It looked like the Digimon knew what that sound was.  
"Numemon!" Gabumon informed.  
"Numemon?" Yamato asked.  
"They're rude Digimon who like dark, slimy places." Gomamon said.  
"Are they strong?" worried Koushiro.  
"They're weak, but they're also dirty!" Patamon added.  
"Dirty?" Takeru questioned.  
"And because they're weak, they tend to travel in a horde." Guilmon gave some more info.  
"They're known as the most hated Digimon in the Digital World." Agumon finished.  
"The most hated…?" Jou muttered. Why is that? Looks like we're about to find out. As Guilmon warned, coming right for us was a horde of them. The green creatures crawled on the ground like a slug and had two eyestalks and small fingerless hands.

"It really is Numemon! RUN!" Agumon ordered. We took off running in the direction we were already traveling when Taichi asked something we all were kind of thinking.  
"Why do we have to run from them if they're weak?!"  
"You'll find out!" Well as it turned out, they soon started throwing… Oh my God, tell me that is not what I think that is, as I saw a pink swirling object landed in the water. They're like monkeys because that's their own crap they're throwing at us! We kept moving until Takeru found us a side tunnel.  
"Over here!" We ran down the tight tunnel with the Numemon close behind. We then saw a light at the end of the tunnel signifying that we had found our way back to the surface. The tunnel had led us to a cliffside that over looked a large dried green field and a nearby forest not too far below. Suddenly the Numemon stopped chasing us as they fled back to the sewers.  
"The Numemon hate the sunlight." Agumon said. We all sighed in relief after that ordeal.

 _File Island. A-Day+2. Afternoon._

When we got off of the cliffside, we decided to stop by a nearby creek bed to have lunch. We were rationing it as best as we could, but with the whole Digimon needing food in order to even fight, it was a little harder to do. I think we're now down to the point that if we eat all the rest without eating off the land, we'll be out by lunch tomorrow. As we dug in, everyone was asking questions, most were directed to Koushiro who explained more about what he had found earlier. He explained that this was a world where computer data essentially becomes flesh and blood, hence the Digimon and the world around us. That was somewhat disheartening as that meant that somehow we weren't on Earth anymore.

The conversation moved on from there and we came to know a little bit more about each other, especially something surprising about Mimi that you would never guess.  
"Mimi-chan. You mentioned earlier when we were singing something about your father?" Sora asked.  
"Oh, yeah. Well, like I said, that song I sang was Enka which my dad sings a lot during karaoke. It's actually his favorite genre of music, though he really also likes Country."  
"Wait, Country? As in Country music, like from the United States?" Taichi questioned. What she said next was a shock.  
"Well, yeah, I do too. After all, we were both born in Nashville."  
"WHAT!?" We shouted, though I may have been louder.  
"Nashville? As in Nashville, Tennessee? Country music capital, Nashville?" I said dumfounded.  
"Yep! Both me and him were born there. I'm a Nisei on my dad's side and an Issei on my mother's side. My grandparents on my dad's side moved from Japan to eventually settled in Nashville sometime in the '50s and my mother was a young child when her family moved to San Diego in the '70s. She was starting high school when she moved to Nashville and met my father. Of course, I don't really remember anything about Nashville, we moved back to Japan when I was two because of my father's job." We just really couldn't believe this. "Why do you think I wear this? I'm a country girl at heart!" She then flashed a 'V' sign. Well, that explained the Stetson. Guess this is just another example of never judging a book by their cover.

After that _, illuminating_ conversation, we continued on our way. As it turned out, we were still technically in the savannah but at the very least we were almost out of it, and I doubt we could've made it much further had we not traveled through the sewers. Continuing along the creek bed, it was clear that everyone was getting pretty tired from the heat. But like clockwork, we'd soon come across yet another weird sight. In a small valley nearby, there stood about forty to fifty vending machines.  
"There are so many drink vending machines here…" Mimi noticed.  
"Mimi… You're not thinking of getting one, are you?" Palmon asked.  
"Of course I am!" As she charged down the hill with Palmon close behind.  
"Mimi-kun, they won't work anyway!" Jou tried to tell her. He's right, and even if they were, they're probably not cold… though, I wouldn't mind a Dr. Pepper.  
"Geez…" Taichi moaned.  
"It can't be helped. She's still a kid." Sora pointed out.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

So many vending machines, so many choices! With all the machines around, we'd wouldn't need to worry about going thirsty. As I came up to one of the machines that had some cola, I started to look for some change in my bag.  
"Cola! Palmon, do you want one?" I offered.  
"No!" She defiantly said.  
"You don't have to sound mad about it." I put some change in the slot. After a moment of hearing the coin fall through the machine, the whole door fell forward and nearly fell on top of us to reveal that it was empty! Well, almost, as there was a Numemon waiting for us!  
"Hey, babe!" He yelled. 'Babe?' Is he hitting on me?! "Wanna date me?"  
"He's hitting on you. What are you gonna do?" Palmon asked. As if I was even contemplating his suggestion!  
"Nothing, of course! Why do I have to date a lowlife like him?!" I insulted.  
"Don't make him mad!" What is she worried about, did she forget about earlier?  
"Don't worry! The sunlight will…" I then noticed a large group of clouds were coming in and blocking the sun! "No way…"  
"Who are you calling a lowlife? Now I'm pissed!" Numemon roared as he angrily tossed his, um, waste at us!  
"Again!?" Palmon cried out as we took off running. More vending machines came apart around us to reveal even more Numemon.  
"You've got to be kidding me!" yelled Ross.  
"T-There's so many…" Sora said as we ran past them. The others joined me as we were fleeing from the Numemon once again. Can't we ever catch a break?

"Let's split up!" Yamato suggested.  
"Okay!" Taichi agreed.  
"Split on my mark… break!" Ross ordered as we followed through. The others took off in different directions; I just kept running forward towards the woods. I can't honestly believe how much energy I have for running but I guess fear is a great motivator. A quick look behind us showed that we were now being chased by three of the disgusting vermin. That was at least something that I'm sure Palmon could handle as we ducked behind some trees. Palmon then revealed herself in an attacking stance which caused the Numemon to stop.  
"Poison Ivy!" The Numemon panicked and ran away with Palmon looking confused.  
"Palmon, that was awesome!" I cheered.  
"But that's weird. I didn't do anything yet…" Oh, who cares, those slugs are gone. Now, we probably should find the others.

That thought was interrupted as the ground shook violently beneath us as something large had stepped behind us. We quickly turned around to see towering over us was a large yellow teddy bear with red eyes.  
"Monzaemon!" Palmon said. So this teddy was a Digimon too?  
"Welcome to Toy Town." He announced. Uh, where exactly is the town? We're still in the woods.  
"Monzaemon is a Perfect-Level Digimon, and his special attack, Lovely Attack, even makes his enemies happy." Palmon informed.  
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad." I said with some relief.  
"Yeah, he also loves toys, and the toys love him too. That's why he's the Mayor of Toy Town."  
"So he's a good Digimon!" Finally, a lucky break.  
"I think so." Wait, why is there hesitation in your voice, Palmon?  
"We've been waiting for you, Miss." He said, before his eyes glowed even more red, and a beam of red light crashed in front of us and caused a large explosion! Just when I thought things we're going well, this place gives me yet another reason to hate it! Once again, Palmon and I ran with all speed.

"Why is a good Digimon attacking us?!" I cried.  
"I don't know!" responded Palmon. Why is it you Digimon are always almost wrong about every Digimon we run into?  
"Please enjoy yourselves!" Monzaemon yelled. "It's an honor to meet you!"  
"Something must have happened to Monzaemon!"  
"Why couldn't we meet him _before_ that happened?!" I rebutted as we got out of the forest and back into the fields.  
"Babe, this way!" A Numemon, probably the same one who hit on me earlier, called out from a ditch.  
"Numemon?!" I questioned.  
"We have to hide!" Palmon pointed out. Continue getting chased by Monzaemon or hide in a ditch with Numemon? Well, I suppose the ditch is better than anything as we ducked into it.  
"Let's play together!" The teddy said as he walked over us. Thank goodness, looks like he lost us. After a few moments, we peaked out of the ditch and saw him go back into the forest.  
"He left…" I said.  
"I wonder if something happened at Toy Town?" wondered Palmon. I'm guessing we're probably gonna find out.  
"Hey babe, wanna have a date with me at Toy Town?" Numemon bluntly asked.  
"No!" I answered as I turned up my nose. He slammed his face into the ground from the rejection. "Let's go, Palmon!"  
"Wait for me!" She said as we got out of the ditch.  
"That chick is so blunt." I overheard the Numemon said. I would've said something, but my concern was more focused on Toy Town than with him.

 _Toy Town, File Island. A-Day+2. Afternoon._

As we came over the hill, we finally caught a good glimpse of Toy Town. It looked like a mix of a storybook village, or maybe, just a slightly more colorful German village, and an amusement park.  
"That's Toy Town." Palmon confirmed.  
"Beautiful! It's like an amusement park!" After a few more minutes of walking, we were finally on the town streets. There was happy music in the air, but I was more worried about the lack of any other sound. It was too quiet for my own liking. We came across what looked to be the main square. On the ground, there were some different colored bricks that resembled Monzaemon's face. We then heard the sound of a car horn and some footsteps.  
"Someone's coming." Palmon said. Coming right for us was Taichi and a small wind-up car behind him.

"This is fun. This is fun. This is fun." He repeated, though while he had a happy look on his face, the sound of his voice was somewhat… deadpan.  
"Taichi-san?" I asked, trying to get his attention but he just ignored me and kept repeating the same phrase. "It doesn't look much fun."  
"This is so, so interesting~!" Sora ran by with a small monkey banging cymbal chasing her.  
"What is?" Palmon wondered.  
"I'm happy, I'm happy, I've never been happier." Koushiro, like Taichi and Sora, was sounding the same and he had a bunch of toy soldiers following him.  
"He doesn't look happy at all." I said. Palmon merely nodded.  
"I'm choo-choo-choo happy!" Yamato had a train chasing him.  
"So glad! Oh so very glad!" Ross had a toy tank pursuing him.  
"This is the best! I'm having the time of my life!" Jou was nearly being pecked by a giant version of one of those drinking glass birds.  
"Banzai! Banzai! Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!" Takeru was running from a small helicopter. Something weird was going on.

"It's like everyone lost their emotions…" I guessed. It was probably the best way to describe it. "What's wrong with them?"  
"Weird, Agumon and the others should be with them…" observed Palmon. She's right, where are the other Digimon? We decided to go look through the rest of town to see if the same had happened to them. The next few minutes were uneventful until we came across this one building and saw through the window a locked toy chest that was moving. There was something in it that wanted to get out. We just had to find out what it was. "Is someone there?" Palmon asked the chest.  
"Palmon!" A voice called out. It sounded like Agumon!  
"Is that you, Agumon?" I questioned.  
"Where are Piyomon, Tentomon, Guilmon, Gabumon, Gomamon, and Patamon?" Palmon added.  
"All of us are in here!" Agumon confirmed.  
"What happened?!" I requested, hoping to find out what happened to the others.  
"We were beaten by Monzaemon!"

The respective Digimon began to tell their story. All of them started with what had happened during the Numemon pursuit. Then, just like with Palmon and I, they ran into Monzaemon who scared away the Numemon. After that, the overgrown teddy turned his attention to the others. They each said that they tried to fight back, but with Monzaemon being a Perfect-Level Digimon, it was all in vain. And when the attacks failed, Monzaemon responded with his Lovely Attack that capture them and put them to sleep. When the Digimon woke up, they found themselves in the toy chest and the humans missing. But that still didn't explain what's wrong with the others. That's when Gabumon said that before he fell asleep he heard Monzaemon say _'The Digimon will go in the toy box. The children will have their emotions erased and serve as toys for the toys!'_

"Toys for the toys?" I asked. I then quickly though back to earlier and suddenly it all made sense! "So the toys were playing with them…"  
"What happened to Monzaemon?" Palmon questioned.  
"We don't know…" We heard Agumon say.  
"Hey, can you get out of this box?" I asked again.  
"We tried to break it, but we can't!" Guilmon answered.  
"Don't worry about us. You have to save Yamato first!" Gabumon insisted.  
"How?" Palmon wondered. Piyomon then said what I was worried about.  
"You'll have to defeat Monzaemon!" How?! You guys couldn't do it earlier, so what hope do me and Palmon have?  
"That's impossible!" I told them.  
"Palmon, Mimi! You're the only ones we can rely on!" Agumon encouraged.  
"What should we do?" Palmon asked me.  
"How should I know?"

I felt kinda of bad leaving the other Digimon behind, but without the key to the chest, there really was nothing we could do. We left the building and got back on the streets in order to find something, anything that could help us.  
"Monzaemon's Lovely Attack is hearts stuffed with happiness… It's supposed to be a happy attack…" Palmon muttered as Takeru ran past us again, being played with that helicopter.  
"What's 'happy' about it?" I said, though, I already knew it was because their emotions had been taken away. Suddenly, that cymbal banging monkey had shown up and at this point, I just got fed up with everything. "Shut up!" I yelled, as I kicked it over. And just if things couldn't get any worse, Monzaemon turned up behind us with bear-head balloons in his hands.

"Welcome to Toy Town." He announced once again. "Miss, we've been waiting for you." No! I refuse to end up with my emotions sucked away and turned into a mindless drone like the others!  
"Be quiet! I don't know what happened to you, but you can't just take away my friends' feelings! Give them back!" By the end of my little rant, I finally just noticed his eyes glowing red again meaning he was about to shoot. A quick jump back saved me and Palmon from being blasted apart by the attack as we took off running. "Give me a break! Why do I have to be chased by a giant stuffed teddy bear?!"  
"I don't know!" Palmon answered.  
"Please enjoy yourselves!" Hard for us when you're shooting at us and plaining on taking my emotions away! As another blast rang out from behind us, we were suddenly relived from an unlikely source that jumped through the dust.

"Babe, we're here to save you!" A bunch of Numemon cried out as they charged the large teddy bear Digimon. One of them got a hit on Monzaemon's forehead, which really did nothing but made him angry beyond belief.  
"Numemon… why?!" Palmon questioned. The attack continued to do nothing as Monzaemon stomped his foot on the ground that sent them flying.  
"The Numemon are fighting for me… Even though they can't do anything but throw poop…" I know that I might be an attractive girl that a guy would like to go out with, but am I really worth fighting an impossible fight for?  
"I can fight too!" Palmon determined and charged forward to join the fight.  
"Palmon, stay away!" I warned her.  
"Poison Ivy!" The attack wrapped around his arm but he threw her aside and she landed back right next to me.  
"Palmon! Are you okay?" I worried.  
"Poison Ivy doesn't work!"  
"Lovely Attack!"  
"Run, Mimi!" We did not want to get hit with that or the others were doomed. However, there was no way we could out run it. Swiftly, the Numemon got between us and the attack and built themselves into a wall that the hearts crashed into. They sacrificed themselves just to save me and Palmon.

"They're useless and cowardly, but the Numemon are desperately trying to protect Mimi…" Palmon said as she got angry and began to glow! Was she now evolving like the others?  
"Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" The now dubbed Togemon was a bi-pedal cactus with three holes on her face signifying her eyes and mouth, two boxing gloves on her hands, and an orange bud on the top of her head.  
"Here I come!" She announced as she pounded her fist together like it was a prize winning title match. It soon turned into that as the two large Digimon walked towards each other before they started to trade blows with one another. Right hook, left jab, any type of punch that I knew whenever Dad left boxing on the TV was being used by the two of them. Monzaemon tried to end the fight with his laser vision but he left himself wide open to a punch in the jaw that Togemon threw a hard punch at. The hit disoriented him and Togemon used the opportunity to deliver her own special move.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" Togemon unleashed a swarm of sharp needles towards the teddy bear which caused him to kneel over in pain before falling over. Then the zipper on his back opened up and another black gear flew out before turning to dust!  
' _My dad always said, 'One's an anomaly, two's a trend.''_ I heard Ross's words from earlier ring in my head. That was the third black gear we encountered, which meant there was something up with these things. Well, that could wait as Togemon turned back into Palmon and fell to her knees, exhausted.  
"Palmon!" I exclaimed as I ran up to her and gave her great big hug. "You were wonderful!"  
"I-I can't breathe!"

 _Toy Town, File Island. A-Day+2. Dusk.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After my mind came back in order, and I woke up feeling like what I assume a drunk feels with a hangover, Mimi recounted what had happened to us during the afternoon. I guess thanks were in order as the rest of us probably would've been emotionless zombies for the rest of our lives if it wasn't for her and Palmon, or more specifically, Togemon. Giant boxing cactus, she says? I look forward to seeing that. After that, we found Monzaemon who seemed to have gotten back to his more nice self and he began explaining why he did what he did.  
"When people get tired of their toys, they break them readily, without a single thought. I couldn't forgive that. That's why as Mayor of Toy Town, I wanted to raise the special status of the toys…"  
"'The special status of the toys?'" Mimi asked. Wait, this overgrown teddy bear is a civil rights leader for toys? I swear, this place is gonna break my mind.  
"I think he means making us realize the importance of toys." Jou said.  
"That's right. Toys shouldn't be toyed with, but _played_ with." Monzaemon insisted.  
"So that's why you made us play for the toys." Taichi chuckled.  
"I'm sorry. I got carried away with myself."  
"Right, the black gear." Sora remembered Mimi's story.  
"That gear must've been what made Monzaemon act that way." Taichi alleged.  
"Those gears are turning out to be nothing but bad news." I added.  
"I can understand Monzaemon's love of toys." Mimi believed.  
"Yeah!" Palmon answered.

"Palmon, thank you for bringing me back to my senses. To show my gratitude, I shall make you happy." Monzaemon thanked as he got up. "This is my real Lovely Attack!" The first hearts engulfed Palmon and Mimi but when they both started laughing, it looked like there was nothing to worry about. Soon the rest of us were all recipients of the attack, and let me tell you, it felt amazing. Like a warm hug from your mother… I miss you, Mom.  
"Babe, kiss me!" A Numemon said to Mimi as he popped out of the sewer hole.  
"No!" She responded with a smile on her face, in a 'thanks but no thanks' way. The Numemon faceplanted in disappointment.  
"Nothing's changed…" He said disappointedly as our laughs could be heard over the streets of Toy Town as the sun went down.

As we headed to bed in town, I went to sleep not knowing that tomorrow would bring a turning point to my friendship with Guilmon…

* * *

So Chapter 6 has come to an end!

So, um, hope no one gets too upset about the whole Mimi is actually Japanese-American but I always kinda thought that considering what happens to her in Adventure 02, and I thought her father may have had duel citizenship or something.

So the next chapter will be entirely original so I'm giving myself the deadline of May 24th and there will be a slight slowdown of work during Memorial Day weekend what with Solo coming out the 25th and then visiting Grandparents over the weekend, I'll still work, but maybe not have as much time.

Anyways, until next time, take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	8. Fighting Spirit! Growmon!

Well, here it is! My just about fully original chapter!

I have to admit, I was on a roll to finishing this the day after publishing the last chapter, but then I got distracted with watch GTA Heist vids (Gus Mota was always my gunner!) and playing Hearts of Iron IV and it kinda just got away from me.

Still, made the deadline, so here were go: Chapter 7.

* * *

 ** **Chapter 7: Fighting Spirit! Growmon!  
****

 _File Island. A-Day+3. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

Another quiet night here on File Island. It looks like we just had some bad luck in terms of our first night, or maybe we should keep trying to rest in villages and towns. The good thing about Toy Town was there was food for us at dinner and breakfast so once again, we didn't have to dip into our food supply. An hour after sunrise, we said our goodbyes to Monzaemon and his toys and headed north. During the first hour, no one really said anything as we were all pretty deep in our thoughts. Yamato and Gabumon were at the head of our group, keeping their eyes peeled for any kind of trouble in front of us. The silence was soon broken as Sora asked me a question.

"Hey, you okay, Ross?"  
"Yeah, just thinking."  
"About what?"  
"I was thinking back to yesterday, those black gears have been on my mind all night."  
"That was the same with me, Ross-san. As far as I can tell, those black gears seem to corrupt and control any Digimon that ends up being an unfortunate victim." Koushiro theorized.  
"Well, that's doesn't sound like good news for us." Taichi muttered.  
"Those gears are beginning to turn into a plague. They're turning perfectly good Digimon in violent monsters." Guilmon determined.  
"Technically, aren't you guys already monsters?" Jou asked.  
"Yeah, but we're not trying to destroy everything around us." Gomamon clarified.  
"And has anyone noticed those gears have been affecting only strong Digimon? I mean, Meramon, Andromon, and Monzaemon were all pretty powerful and those gears seemed to ignore the Pyocomon and the Numemon." Yamato gave his two yen.  
"You think that there's someone controlling these gears?" Mimi questioned.  
"Just call it a hunch."

"That's not just the only thing on your mind, is it Ross?" Guilmon whispered. What? Where is this coming from?  
"What are you taking about?"  
"I'm just saying, you look like you've got more on your mind then simply black gears."  
"Hey, we McGlathery's are an open book; we don't hide anything, thought we maybe a bit too blunt." I defended.  
"McGlathery, McGlathery… I feel like I've heard that name before." Koushiro mumbled.  
"Well, he does go to our school, so you may have heard it around there." Jou said. I do not really like all this focus on me today.  
"No, I think I've heard it on the news… you said at camp you were living with Taichi, but why?"  
"You heard it on the news because my dad is Cpt. McGlathery, the highest ranking survivor of the USS Shiloh and the reason why there was a war in Southeast Asia recently." I told him.  
"Oh, there it is, that was on the tip of my tongue."  
"Yeah, I lived with Taichi whenever Dad was on patrol and even when he was home, I spent the weekdays sleeping at his place because we'd go to the same school. So when Dad went missing, it made sense I'd live with his best friend."  
"Yeah, our dads have known each other since they went to middle school together in Houston. Hell, they were each other's best man at their weddings." Taichi added.

"But why didn't you live with your mom?" Oh, Takeru… Everyone suddenly stopped as soon as he said that. They all had apprehensive looks on their faces as they kind of pieced things together pretty quick, except for Sora and Taichi who knew the truth.  
"Well, Takeru-kun… she just never left Corpus Christi."  
"Oh, so your parents fought too…" Oh, now I really do have to tell him the truth, but have to be careful with this tightrope.  
"No, no, it was nothing like that! My parents-" Careful. Don't insinuate or insult the brothers about their parent's divorce. "Look, she just didn't move to Japan."  
"But, why didn't you go back?"  
"Well, it's kind of hard for her to take care of me… when she's been six feet underground since '92." The look on Takeru's face shifted so fast from confusion to sadness and fear.  
"Oh! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't know-"  
"It's okay, Takeru-kun! I'm not mad! You didn't know." I quickly tried to inform him that he wasn't in any kind of trouble.  
"Hey, listen! Why don't we talk about something else?" Sora tried to change the conversation, but the damage was already done.

The next thirty minutes were as silent as earlier with nobody talking again. Ugh, why did I have to say anything? I should've just lied, let Takeru figure it out on his own or something, but no, I had come clean immediately. Maybe I should just tell a bunch of people I don't know that well that I'm currently suffering from depression! Hell, I wonder if they'd even believe me. At the same time as we kept walking through this forest, I kept noticing Guilmon constantly looking at me. I guess it's kinda of fair, I was doing the same thing to him our first day here. Soon we discovered that our path was blocked by a large canyon.

"Well, looks like we're gonna have to find another way around." Yamato summed up.  
"Doesn't look so deep, however, I can see there's a small river down there." pointed out Koushiro.  
"Would you guys like me to see what's on the other side?" Patamon asked.  
"Or maybe we could fly you over?" Piyomon suggested.  
"No, that won't be necessary, we can just go around." Taichi said.  
"There should be an end to the canyon, that direction." Palmon pointed towards the east. "Or at least, that's what I've heard." At that point, I walked up towards the edge of the canyon with Guilmon close behind.  
"What do you think, that look to be about seventy-five meters?"  
"Maybe, though what's a meter?" I smiled. Personality wise, Guilmon seemed to be a mix between Agumon and Tentomon. He looked to be normally carefree, but could be quite serious at times like Agumon; and he was also very curious and seemed eager to learn like Tentomon. At that moment, I may have made quite a possible fatal mistake as the ground began to shake.  
"Ahh! It's an earthquake!" Mimi yelled. I started to lose my balance and soon I fell over the side, Guilmon lost his balance too and fell with me.  
"ROSS-SAN!" "ROSS!" Those were the last words I heard as I fell down the canyon below before my world turned black.

Afterwards, I felt myself regain consciousness as I felt my head hurt and I heard my name being called.  
"Ross! Ross! Are you all right?" I recognized the voice belonged to Guilmon. I slowly began to open my eyes and saw that I was looking straight up the canyon wall though it looks like there were three marks that were sliding down it.  
"Yeah, I think I'm okay. Ow, my head hurts."  
"Not surprising, you hit your head almost immediately. And you probably wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for me."  
"What happened? What do you mean, 'if it wasn't for you'?" I asked him as I looked over to him. He looked fine, though Digimon I've come to discover were not as fragile as humans.  
"Well, I grabbed you as you fell, and then I used my free arm to cling to the canyon wall and used my claws to slowly slide us down safely… oh, I think I've lost feeling in them!" I chuckled, he saved my life and yet he was complaining about how he hurt his claws.  
"I think you'll be fine, man. But, in all seriousness, thanks, I owe you."  
"You don't owe me anything. I'm just happy to help." With that said our focus turned to how to we get back to the others and tell them we're alright. Thankfully, the 'find out we're okay' problem was solved quickly.

"Ross-han! Guilmon!" Tentomon cried out as he flew down towards us. "Are you two okay?"  
"Yeah, we're okay, Tentomon. You can tell the others we're fine." Guilmon said.  
"Alright! That's a relief, the others were really worried." Tentomon was beginning to take off again but I stopped him.  
"Hey, wait! We need to figure out how we're gonna link up. We can't climb the canyon wall."  
"Oh, yeah, forgot you guys can't fly like me."  
"Listen, Palmon mentioned that the canyon ends towards the east, so tell Taichi and the others to go that direction and we'll meet them there, okay."  
"Okay." He said as he took off to get back to the others. I did a quick check of my stuff to discover that miraculously everything was still intact.  
"Ok, Guilmon. Hopefully, we can reach the gang before lunch. Shall we getting moving?"  
"Lead the way, Ross."

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

I was worried to say the least about Ross. I know he take care of himself, heck, he's technically supposed to be looking after me but we both know we can handle ourselves. But I saw him fall and hit his head, and well, the odds weren't looking good.  
"Do you think he's alright?" Takeru asked his older brother.  
"Don't know."  
"There's no way he could've survived that." worried Koushiro. At that point, I just snapped and shoved him to the ground.  
"Of course he survived it! Ross is the toughest one of us here! And it'll take more than simply falling off a cliff to finish him off, so shut up!" I yelled as both Jou and Yamato came up to me and tried holding me back, thinking I was going to start hitting Koushiro.  
"Everyone! They're okay!" Tentomon exclaimed as he flew back up. Thank God. "Koushiro-han! What happened?" Tentomon noticed that Koushiro was on the ground.  
"I doubted the survival of the fall, and Taichi-san shoved me."  
"Sorry, Koushiro." I apologized.  
"So, what do we do now?" Sora wondered.  
"Ross-han suggested that we head east of the canyon and we'll meet him at some point." informed Tentomon.  
"Alright then. Let's get going." I said as we headed east to meet up with Ross and Guilmon.

 _Canyon, File Island. A-Day+3. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

Me and Guilmon's trip through the canyon was far less quiet than when we were traveling with the others earlier. The curious Digimon was asking me a lot of questions relating back to our world. I have to admit, I kinda felt like a parent with a young kid who just keeps asking the question 'Why?' Well, I tried to answer as many as possible, and I gave him a really short sum up of human history. Major events like the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, Age of Discovery, Colonization and some more recent events, though I kept the mention of wars to a minimal because I'd be stuck on them for hours. All in all though, I found it very interesting to really have a conversation with him. And I wasn't the only one explaining stuff; he was telling me somethings about his home, yet nothing really that helpful in terms of getting us back home.

"Hey, Ross? Why were you so defensive earlier?"  
"What?" Wait; was he still on that 'having more on the mind'?  
"I said it earlier; you look like you've got more on your mind, almost as if you're hiding something." Shoot! Can he really tell? Does he know that I'm actually suffering from depression? And how dare him! What gives him the right to try to figure me out?  
"Well, I'm not. I'm not hiding anything; I've just got a few things on my mind, but nothing in terms of secrets."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes! Who made you my psychiatrist? I'm fine." I clearly wasn't being that subtle.  
"Look, Ross. I may have a lot in common with Agumon, we're both pretty carefree, but unlike him, I tend to notice things. And from what I can tell, there's something you've been keeping from the others, especially Taichi." I was starting to get tired from this line of questioning and decided to take a seat on a nearby rock; I at least need to take a few minutes to break from all the walking.

The question remained: do I tell him the truth? Do I tell him that I'm depressed because I feel out of place in the world, that life isn't fair to me, that I fear of losing more of those close to me? Do I tell him that I'm just cracking jokes and putting on a smile to hide my true self? Do I tell him about that cool November afternoon?

 _'Come on, just one more step.'_

No… well, maybe I could at least give him something but all of my problems with depression is something that I have to handle myself. No one else can help me.  
"Alright, you're kinda of right. I'm just feeling… Guilmon, have you noticed anything about me that's different from the others?" I asked him.  
"No, I don't really see anything different about any of you." Heh, so innocent.  
"Look, we're all humans but humanity is more… organized by certain races and nationalities. You Digimon are all the same in terms of being Digimon but there's a large variety of you." He nodded, seems like I didn't lose him. "Well, see, everyone else is racially Asian with their nationality being Japanese, but me… well; I'm the odd one out."  
"How?"  
"I'm Caucasian. My nationality is American with bloodline descending from Scotland and Ireland, kinda of ironic considering your voice being English. I mean for crying out loud, I've lived in Japan for most of my life, I'm well integrated with the language and the culture and yet… {I'm still a Texan that's living in a foreign place and sticks out like a sore thumb.}" I finished in my native English tongue, and I was pretty sure that Guilmon didn't understand me at that last part.

I know it sounds stupid that part of my depression would be the whole idea of feeling like a complete stranger to those around me, but depression is a funny thing.  
"Ross, I don't think you should feel like you're a stranger to them. I've seen how close you are to Taichi, and you seem to fit seamlessly with the others. So maybe you're not exactly like them, but at the end of the day, you're all friends, no matter who you are." He explained. I wish that was truly the case; that his words solved that portion of my depression, well, in a way he is right. We're all in the same boat here, but I still felt out of place. But maybe I should look at this problem from a different angle. Friends… yeah, that sounds kinda of right.  
"You know what, I think you have a point… but what I want to know is why you're so obsessed with how I'm feeling?"  
"What do you mean? I've waited my whole life for you to come, and now that you're here… I'm just trying to be your friend. Are we not friends?" I could've easily answered that question but it reminded me of another one.  
"That reminds me. What exactly are you meaning when you say 'you've waited your whole life for me'? How did you even know who I am if we've never met before?"  
"I… don't know." Great, another thing they don't know. "I just knew…"

Unfortunately, our conversation was interrupted by the ground rumbling again like earlier causing the both of us to get up off of the ground.  
"Another earthquake?" I yelled. It wasn't. The canyon wall near the two of us suddenly exploded to reveal a large velociraptor looking Digimon. It was mostly covered in silver armor except on its legs, neck and tail which were covered in a thin yellow fur. The beast even had two large wings.  
"It's Raptordramon!" exclaimed Guilmon. "He's an Adult-Level Digimon who lives for the fight. Once his Ambush Crunch gets ahold of a foe, it's all over!" The large raptor was just staying in position on the canyon river edge, seemly oblivious to us.  
"I'm guessing he's not that friendly?"  
"Well, he mostly keeps to himself unless provoked. Looks like he was responsible for the earthquakes, because it appears that he was buried under the rocks. Just bad timing on our part of being here when he finally got out." Swiftly, he turned his head towards us and then roared. I think he was mad at us!

"Run!" I screamed as we took off running. It was hard to keep balance as Raptordramon was stomping behind us but we kept moving. We jumped over one of the thinnest part of the river to get to the other side as we did whatever it took to get away from him.  
"Ambush Crunch!" Raptordramon yelled as he tried to take a bite of us, or more likely, just eat us in one bite. He missed barely, but the vibrations of the ground rumbling caused the both of us to fall over. Guilmon then turned to engage the larger dinosaur even though he was way out of his league.  
"Fireball!" The shot did exactly what I thought it was going to do and simply bounce off the raptor's armor.  
"What are you doing?" I questioned.  
"What does it look like? I'm trying to protect you!" More like trying to get himself killed. He keeps launching more Fireballs but they're not doing anything. If only he could evolve, then maybe he'd stand a chance, but how do I get him to do that? I mean, putting myself in danger might work but what if it doesn't? I could just end up being killed. At this point, Raptordramon was fed up with us and swatted Guilmon away into the ankle deep river. At the same time, I found myself making another fatal mistake: I had positioned myself in small cave in the canyon, but it was only deep enough to keep someone out of the rain and was within the raptor's neck reach.  
"Ross is in trouble! I won't let myself be defeated! Not now and not ever!" I heard Guilmon say.

As Raptordramon came closer, I knew that this had to be it. I could only close my eyes. Well, Mom, looks like I'm coming to see ya… way earlier than we both wanted.  
"ROSS!" Guilmon cried. "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" I then heard a loud bang and had to open my eyes. To my surprise, Raptordramon had been stopped in his tracks! Currently holding his jaw open and preventing me from being a snack was the newly evolved Growmon. Growmon looked like a much larger version of Guilmon with a few added differences. He now had on both his arms scythe-looking blades, a white patch of hair going behind his head and those wing looking things on his head were much sharper and more like horns.  
"Hey! I'm the one you're fighting, not him!" Growmon said. He then threw the raptor to the ground and delivered a sharp swipe of his claws to the face. It fazed him out but he quickly got back up.  
"Ambush Crunch!" Raptordramon charged forward but Growmon was quicker and got out of the way, which caused the raptor to charge head first into the canyon wall. The crash caused the rocks above me to start coming down and it looked like I was about to be crushed before they were destroyed by Growmon's arm scythes which were now glowing. He then grabbed Raptordramon at the bases of his head and neck.  
"Go for the neck! It's unarmored!" I ordered. Growmon was happy to obey.  
"Exhaust Flame!" He roared as he launched a powerful wave of flame at point-blank range of Raptordramon's neck, causing the raptor to fall over in defeat, but not before another black gear launched from his neck and disintegrated in to dust.

Growmon began shrinking after the fight until he was on the ground as Guilmon again.  
"Guilmon!" I yelled as I ran up to him and picked him up.  
"Are you okay, Ross?" He asked.  
"Am I okay? I should ask you the same. That was amazing!"  
"Hey, I'll be there for you, no matter what. Besides, what are friends for?"  
"Yeah, we're friends, Guilmon. Sorry for not answering that earlier. But seriously, you were awesome! Come here!" I laughed as I started to give him a noogie.  
"Hey, knock it off! Knock it off!" He laughed too.

"Ugh, my neck." Raptordramon moaned as he got back up.  
"Sorry about that, but you were trying to eat us." Guilmon apologized.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened!" He begged for forgiveness.  
"It's okay, no real harm was done. Hey, are we almost out of the canyon?" I asked.  
"Huh, oh yeah. Just a little further east and you can easily walk out of it." He turned around. "I better get going, thanks for helping me."  
"No problem. Just don't be a stranger!" I told him as me and Guilmon waved him goodbye. After that, we went back on our way. I thought back to what Guilmon said before, _'I'll be there for you, no matter what.'_ I wasn't still comfortable with admitting my depression to anyone, but maybe, just maybe… he could actually help me. Maybe I don't need to deal with this problem alone. After a few more minutes, we came across the canyon exit and waiting on a hill for us was the rest of the gang who ran up to us.

"Ross!" "Guilmon!" They cried out.  
"Are you okay? I was worried." Taichi asked.  
"Please, it's gonna take more than that to finish me off." I boasted. Taichi then had a pleased look on his face; guess he said the same thing about me earlier.  
"What exactly happened down there?" Sora questioned.  
"Well, we ran into Raptordramon, I evolved into Growmon, and got the black gear out of him." Guilmon said.  
"Another black gear?" "Again?" You evolved?" "Way to go!" That was some of the things that were said in response to his comment.  
"Yeah, he really saved my life. I'm really glad you're here, Guilmon." I told him.  
"Me too, Ross. Hey, when's lunch?" He inquired. We all laughed at the questioned as we got ready to move out to find a better place to have lunch. One thing for certain, I couldn't ask for a better friend than Guilmon.

And as we got moving once again, we would soon come to learn more about the threat that the black gears posed…

* * *

And that was Chapter 7. So what do you think? Did that honestly fit as an episode? I kinda think it did but I'll leave it to you guys.

You might have noticed this before but there was something that I added in terms of the kids. The show dealt with a lot of mature themes: divorce, adoption, death. But I don't think any of the kids suffered from depression, at least not in a long term, so that's where Ross comes in.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, the song Ross is singing at the start of the previous chapter, it's A-Ha's _'The Living Daylights'_ , my favorite Bond theme to the film of the same name staring my favorite Bond, Timothy Dalton. _**The Living Daylights**_ is my second favorite Bond film behind '89s **_Licence to Kill_**.

Anyways, I've got things to do this weekend. Tomorrow, going to see Solo. Then visiting Grandparents over the weekend but I'll still work but expect the next chapter to come at the latest date being May 27th.

'Til then take care!

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	9. Roar! Ikkakumon!

Chapter 8, everyone! So yeah, I made a mistake with my deadline, I meant Monday the 28th of May, but I knuckled down and here you go.

First, shout outs! Big thanks to **Joachimo** and **Theteamrpmgfs** for their faves/follows! And also thanks to **WolfDragon** (You don't have a profile so I can't really reply) for the review. Yes, the world the kids live in is similar to ours with some AU elements in terms of modern history. I'm more of a Alternate History fan in less (but still like) in the terms of Man in the High Castle and Wolfenstein and more like Wargame: Red Dragon or some of the campaigns for Panzer Corps like Operation: Market Garden being a success for the Allies. Oh and 'Push the button, Frank.' is indeed a reference to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

One last thing before we start, saw Solo on Friday. It was good, it was really good. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.

Anyways, on with the show.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Roar! Ikkakumon!  
**

 _File Island. A-Day+3. Afternoon.  
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After enjoying a nice lunch in the woods, we came to a pretty dark reality. We were now down to just two full meals left with our food. To make matters more worrisome, the further we went in this forest, the colder it was getting. Still, even with these problems, morale was certainly high. Maybe it had something to do with the whole friendship with our Digimon that was keeping us in a better mood. I know that was the case with me and Guilmon. I still can't believe what he did for me earlier in the day. That kind of determination and sense of comradeship was something you could really only find with solders in a warzone.

As we kept moving, the temperature just continued to drop and it was starting to get to us.  
"It's cold…" Takeru complained.  
"I think I'm drooping…" Palmon moaned.  
"In contrast, this one's gotten more energetic than usual…" Jou observed about Gomamon, who seemed to be enjoying the weather more than the others in comparison.  
"Oh, well. This cold isn't a bad thing." Taichi said. The rest of us gave him a funny look.  
"Please, give me a break!" Koushiro grumbled.  
"Yeah, Taichi, would you be so kind as to explain your reasoning?" I asked him. He smiled back at the rest of our little posse.  
"If we get any snow, we can have a snowball fight!"  
"Snowball fight!" Takeru and Mimi cheered. Well, that's not too bad, though we have to hope the conditions are right for a said fight. The snow needs to be wet and be able to be clumped together, not dry and powdery where you're just throwing flakes.  
"What's a snowball fight?" Palmon questioned.  
"Dunno…" Patamon replied.

"A snowball fight, huh?" pondered Koushiro.  
"What is that? Is it food?" Tentomon wondered. Boy, these Digimon sure have bottomless stomachs.  
"No, it's not. A snowball fight is a fun activity where we hit snowballs at each other."  
"We can finally have a match!" Yamato playfully threatened.  
"I'm not gonna lose!" determined Taichi.  
"Oh, you better pray I don't get involved, it's not gonna be pretty." I added.  
"Well, I'm certainly looking forward to it." Sora said.  
"I wanna make an igloo!" Takeru wished.  
"Hey, you can make an igloo?" Palmon questioned.  
"Now that _has_ to be food!" cheered Tentomon.  
"I've told you, it's not." Koushiro explained.

"You guys are taking it too easy. It'll be unbearable if it snowed." Jou muttered under his breath. Out of all of us, he was the only one of us that didn't seem to be laughing or at least keeping high in spirits. It seemed more like he was being pessimistic of the situation. I can understand where he's coming from but can't he take his mind off worrying so much and just enjoy the moment while it lasts?  
"Jou-senpai." Sora walked up to the eldest member of our group while the rest of us were talking amongst ourselves. "Why are you standing alone here, looking so serious?"  
"Of course I'll be serious! Think about it! If the temperature drops any further, it'll be tougher for us to set camp! In this cold environment, it'll be harder to find food too… My head's hurting from this! I'm the one who has to protect everyone. Because I'm the eldest." He finished.

It was a few minutes later before we started moving again and that really didn't last very long as we started to reach snow covered ground in the forest, and after we walked out of the forest, we wandered towards the edge of a large snow covered field. While most of us stopped, Mimi, Takeru and their respective Digimon began chasing each other in a playful game of tag.  
"See, look! It's just what I was worrying about!" Jou complained.  
"What should we do?" Sora asked.  
"Let's keep walking while we decide on that. There's no point in standing around." Taichi suggested.  
"Good idea, those four have the right idea, if we keep moving, it will circulate the blood." I observed.  
"Wait, you want us to walk in this snow?" Yamato questioned.  
"He's right! We can't go any farther!" added Jou.  
"Then let's hear your idea!" Taichi snapped back. "In front of us is a snow field, behind us is a mountain." He was referring to the giant mountain that looked like it towered over the entire island. "Whatever direction it is, we still have to move forward." So the choice was between freezing to death in a field or climbing a mountain where we could fall and die… perfect case of 'pick your poison'.

"Hey, wait." Agumon began sniffing the air. "I smell something weird." Both Guilmon and Piyomon joined in.  
"I noticed it as well." Guilmon said.  
"It stinks." Piyomon added.  
"What is it?" Gabumon asked. Soon the rest of us began sniffing for the smell.  
"Could this be…?" Taichi wondered.  
"Look over there!" exclaimed Koushiro. Off to the west were some more woods and more importantly, a trail of smoke.  
"There's smoke!" Piyomon observed.  
"I get it. This stench is…" Yamato trailed off.  
"Is that what I think that is?" I questioned.  
"An onsen!" Jou yelled. An onsen was also known as a Japanese hot spring. Both Takeru and Mimi stopped running immediately.  
"An onsen!" They cheered.

We quickly followed the smoke and ran into the wooded area, hopeful for something in terms of a relief after everything we had been through for the past four days.  
"It's bath time!" "Bath time!" I heard Mimi and Takeru say. As we came over the hill, our hopes faded as we soon discovered the actual springs.  
"This is… It's boiling!" Taichi admitted in defeat. Too hot for us to wash and relax in, but staying nearby it would allow us to make camp and not freeze in the snow.  
"You bathe in this?" Tentomon asked Koushiro.  
"No way."  
"I can't take a bath in this." Mimi complained.  
"But it's very warm." Palmon obliviously stated, unaware of the fact we can't even touch it because it is scalding hot.  
"At least the coldness has gone away." Yamato mumbled.

"Stop being so easygoing! What are we gonna do for food?! There're no provisions here…" Jou was really starting to get on mine and possible everyone else nerves with his constant worrying and complaints.  
"Jou-san, we still have two meals left." I pointed out.  
"Yeah, and we don't need to use them!" Takeru proudly said. Come again, kiddo?  
"What are you talking about?" Jou asked, beating me to the punch because I was about to say the same thing. "This place is full of rocks!"  
"Look!" He pointed off to the right.  
"You've gotta be kidding me."  
"What?" Taichi questioned. I swear, my vision is getting worse because lo and behold, we somehow missed an entire refrigerator in the middle of the area. "Lucky!"  
"This is nuts!" Agreed, but I decided to stop questioning these strange things in order to keep my sanity. "What is a refrigerator doing here?!"

"I wonder what's inside." Yamato said as we all gathered around the fridge.  
"That's not the point!" complained Jou yet again.  
"Well, let's take a look." Sora encouraged.  
"I told you…!"  
"I hope it has jelly~" Mimi said in a singsong voice.  
"What's jelly?" Palmon asked.  
"All right, I'm opening it!" Taichi informed as he opened up the fridge to reveal that it was full of eggs.  
"Eggs!" Agumon cheered.  
"I guess this means dinner's served!"  
"Good find, Takeru-chan!" I praised the younger kid by giving him a pat on the head.

"W-Wait a minute!" warned Jou. "We don't know if they're edible!" Taichi gave him a cocky smile.  
"Don't worry! I'll test them for poison." Don't feel that comfortable letting Taichi being our human guinea pig.  
"What are you saying? Even if we could eat them, we'll just be common thieves for taking other people's property!"  
"But we have no choice. We're hungry." Yamato argued.  
"They'll understand once we explain to them." Sora added.  
"If anyone shows up to claim them…" I said.  
"At any rate, this is an emergency situation." concluded Koushiro.  
"Let's have dinner!" Tentomon determined.

 _File Island. A-Day+3. Evening.  
 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido__

While I argued against taking and eating the eggs, I was overruled by the others, so we spent the next half hour preparing to cook the eggs. At the very least, we save a meal with our provisions. We found ourselves a good circle shaped rock we could use as both a frying pan and a table. We lit a fire under it and Sora and Piyomon cooked the eggs. A few of the Digimon were clawing at trees in order to make bowls so we could eat out of them. Takeru and Patamon came up with the idea of boiling some eggs in the springs which was actually a really good idea, I had to admit. Ross, Koushiro, and Taichi all found us some more firewood we could use for the cooking fire as well as a campfire for later. As for me, I was using the Swiss Army Knife Mimi had in order to make us chopsticks.  
"Everyone's so cheerful…" I muttered under my breath. "I can't be like that. Because I'm holding responsibility." Both Sora and Ross I really could use in terms of giving me a hand in managing the others, but no, they'd rather act as childish as the others. Ugh, what am I going to do? After taking care of the preparation, it was time to eat.  
"Let's eat!" Many of them announced.  
"Let's eat." I said unenthusiastically as everyone began to dig in.  
"Delicious!" Taichi declared. "It's been so long since we had a real meal!"  
"This'll be perfect with some white rice." Yamato believed.  
"Eggs with soft rice!" Takeru added.  
"That sounds good!" Sora agreed.

"What's wrong, Jou? Aren't you gonna eat?" Gomamon asked me. I'm afraid my mind was on other things.  
"I was just thinking how we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble if we were at home." Everyone stopped eating once I said that. Great, should've kept that to myself; now I'm sure everyone's home sick.  
"I want to go home." Mimi teared up.  
"I wonder what everyone's doing…" Takeru wondered.  
"It's been four days since we've come here." Koushiro informed. Sora thankfully was able to change the subject.  
"Hey, everyone! What do you like to put on top of your eggs?"  
"For eggs, I use salt and pepper, of course." I said. It's the only thing you put on eggs but the others apparently had other ideas.

"Soy sauce for me." Taichi informed.  
"Mayonnaise." Yamato bluntly stated. Mayonnaise? Who puts mayonnaise on eggs!?  
"Ketchup's what I mix in." Ross said.  
"I put sauce on mine." Sora says.  
"I use a little _ponzu_." Koushiro told us. He uses a tangy sauce from the juice squeezed from citrus fruits for his eggs? I wasn't the only one who thought this was odd as Taichi began laughing.  
" _Ponzu_ , huh?" Yamato asked.  
"That's gross." Takeru complained.  
"You're all weird. For eggs, it's obvious that you eat them with sugar!" Really, Mimi? "I love eating that with _natto_ on top too!" And she adds fermented soy beans with that too?  
" _Natto…_ " Sora questioned  
"That's too weird!" Takeru said, while Taichi, Ross, and Yamato were on the edge of just falling over and laughing their guts out.

"You all put that bizarre stuff on your eggs?! I'm shocked! The Japanese culture is collapsing before my very eyes!" I complained.  
"Oh, what are you talking about?" Gomamon obliviously asked.  
"H-Hey, Jou…" Yamato nervously tried to get my attention.  
"Who worries over stuff like that? Well, _natto_ might be something to worry about…" Taichi joked.  
"Agreed, but I think the whole 'Japanese culture collapse' might be going a bit overboard." Ross said.  
"With eggs, all you need is salt and pepper!" I continued to defend. "Not sauce, not ketchup, or mayonnaise, but salt and pepper!"  
"Geez… You're so stubborn, Jou." Gomamon shrugged. Is he making fun of me now?  
"What?!"  
"Well, it's true, isn't it? You keep worrying over the little things."  
"How am I stubborn?!"  
"See, look! You get mad right away!"  
"No I don't!"  
"Wanna fight?!" He put up his paws like he was putting up his dukes.  
"Damn you!" I shouted as I stood up. Yamato quickly ran over to me and grabbed my shoulder.  
"Hey, Jou, calm down!" I threw his arm off of my shoulder.  
"Shut up! I _am_ calm! I always am…"  
"You're acting weird today. Maybe you're just tired."  
"I'm not tired! I'm not the one who's acting weird here. All of you are!"

Nobody was really talking for the next few minutes after I said that. Everyone just went on their way to getting ready for bed. I sat alone next to one of the springs and started to toss rocks into them, seeing if I could get them to skip on the water.  
"I have my act together. I do…" I muttered. "I have my act together!" I have to, because I'm only one who seems to be responsible. After a few more minutes, I rejoined the others, and Yamato and Taichi were currently in a heated debate.  
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Taichi questioned.  
"It's still too dangerous!" responded Yamato.  
"It's no use thinking about it!"  
"And I'm telling you to _think_ about it a little!"  
"Then what? Are you saying that I'm not thinking about anything?!"  
"Yeah."  
"What?!"

"Hey, what's wrong? What are those two arguing about?" I asked the group.  
"They're arguing over whether or not we should head to Infinity Mountain." Koushiro filled me in as he pointed to the mountain.  
"Infinity Mountain?" So, that's what that towering mountain is called. Well, the name fits it very well.  
"Let me explain the arguments, Jou-san." Ross started. "Taichi is proposing we climb the mountain, and I'm inclined to agree with him. It commands an entire view of the area and could really help us understand our surroundings. Essentially, it would be our Hill 400." Hill 400? Taichi said Ross was a military kid, so that probably was a reference to some important battle.  
"That's true. On a mountain that tall, we can see everything." I nodded.  
"But Yamato is against it because it's dangerous." Sora added.  
"There are a lot of ferocious Digimon on that mountain." informed Piyomon.  
"I see… That's dangerous." I considered.

"What?" Taichi yelled. "We won't get anywhere if we kept running away like you!"  
"You think I'm gonna quietly follow along with your recklessness and get everyone into danger?" Yamato countered.  
"What?!" Okay, this is getting us nowhere. I walked up and decided to play mediator between the two.  
"Hold it, you two! Let's calm down first and talk it over without fighting." I said as I stood next to them.  
"What's your opinion, Jou?" Yamato asked.  
"Who do you agree with?" Taichi questioned. Great, put me on the spot, both of you.  
"Well, what Taichi says is true… If we climb up there, we can get a sense of directions." I admitted.  
"See, look!"  
"But what Yamato says is right too. There's no point in climbing up that mountain if it'll bring harm to everyone…" I went deep into thought, trying to figure out this problem.

"In any case, let's just go as far as we can!" Taichi continued to plead his case.  
"And I'm telling you, you're wrong!" Yamato continued to argue.  
"Wait! I'm thinking right now! Just wait a bit! Calm down!" I ordered.  
"You're the one who's heating up!"  
"What? I'm thinking for all of your…"  
"Let's just go!" Taichi interrupted.  
"Don't decide on your own!" Yamato talked down. That's it!  
"LISTEN TO ME!" I screamed in an attempt to shut the both of them up.  
"Stop!" Sora joined in. "Cut it out, you three."  
"It's gotten really late." Piyomon observed.  
"Yeah, it's time to sleep." Agumon added.  
"Let's continue this tomorrow." Gabumon finished.  
"The others look really worn out from all this arguing too." Ross said. "Come on." Ross, Agumon, and Guilmon dragged Taichi away, while Sora, Piyomon, and Gabumon took care of Yamato. The others followed along, leaving me and Gomamon behind but only because I didn't feel like moving. I screwed everything up once again...

 _File Island. A-Day+3. Night.  
_

We manage to find a cave we could hold up for the night, and because of that, there was no need for a watch. The others were sleeping peacefully but I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking back to earlier and how I couldn't do anything about the fight. Not only did I not stop it, I ended up getting caught up in it instead. I can't keep doing this. I have to stay focused. I have to keep everyone in order! And there's only one way to do it. I have to climb Infinity Mountain.

I got up and quietly snuck out of the cave, but I made sure to leave a message telling the others that I was out. This was the only way. I have to climb the mountain for everyone's sakes.  
"Acting cool, are we?" A voice called out ahead of me. I flinched in fear until the voice revealed itself to be Gomamon. "Are you planning to go up that mountain alone?"  
"Don't try to stop me, Gomamon."  
"Not gonna." Huh, didn't expect that answer. "Well, go on." Fine. I walked right past him before I noticed that he was beginning to follow.  
"Don't follow me! I'm going alone!" I told him.  
"Who says I'm following you? There's something I have to do on that mountain." I doubt it but I also doubt he'd listen anyways.  
"Have it your way."  
"Geez… you're just not honest with yourself, Jou."  
"What?"  
"You felt intimidated going there on your own, weren't you?"  
"Don't be stupid."  
"Oh c'mon, don't worry about it!" We stopped talking after that as we began our approach to the base of the mountain.

After a little bit of climbing, it was becoming clear this was going to be more difficult than I originally thought.  
"In any case… this is a large mountain…"  
"Admitting defeat already?" Gomamon teased.  
"Of course not!"  
"If you need my help, I'll lend you a hand." I stopped.  
"A hand? Those are hands?" I chuckled.  
"Don't make me mad."  
"It's just a joke." He gave me a confused look. "What's wrong?"  
"You can make jokes. Never mind. Come on, let's go."

A few more hours and we had gotten pretty far up the mountain. However, the road up it was treacherous and it appeared that Yamato would've been right about us not making it.  
"Let's take a break! I think we've reached the halfway point."  
"You're pretty good." The seal complimented me.  
"You're not bad yourself." Suddenly, the ground began shaking hard. "What's that?"  
"An earthquake?"  
"It can't be… Could this mountain be a volcano?!" As it turns out, it was much more sinister. We saw further up the path that the mountain was opening up and flying out of it were black gears! "Why did they come from there? Let's check it out! We might be able to find something!"  
"Yeah!"

It was almost dawn by the time we reached near the top and the location where I saw the mountain open. I was dead tired with no sleep whatsoever, but I couldn't let that stop me. Unfortunately, it looked like there was nothing out of the ordinary about this part of the mountain.  
"I'm sure it was around here…"  
"I don't see any devices anywhere…" Gomamon added.  
"Come on, let's take a closer look."  
"Wait! What's that sound?" We heard the sounds of wings flapping and saw the source was a creature that wore a red mask with a horn. It was mostly a horse but had wings, so it was like a mix between a unicorn and a Pegasus.  
"A horse?"  
"It's Unimon! He's a smart, gentle Digimon. He has a special attack which is a fireball that he calls his Holy Shot."  
"Hide!" I warned him.  
"Don't worry! Unimon is nice. There's no need to hide from him."  
"That Digimon information you guys give us never turns out to be right." I countered.

Unimon landed near us and walked over to a nearby waterfall that he began drinking out of.  
"Oh look. He's drinking. That must be where he gets his water. He's actually pretty majestic…" I admitted.  
"See, I told you it was all right! Let's take a closer look!" Gomamon began to move towards Unimon.  
"H-Hey!" Gomamon and Unimon both stopped what they were doing and looked towards the sky.  
"Something's coming…" Gomamon said and I had a pretty good idea what it was. Silhouetted against the setting moon was what I feared. A black gear and it was on a direct course to our direction! It soon came crashing into Unimon's back and the mythical beast began screaming out in pain.  
"Oh no…"  
"His eyes… His eyes…!" As Gomamon noticed, the visor where his eyes were turned from a calm, peaceful blue to a very angry red. "His eyes… they've gone crazy!" Gomamon yelled as Unimon started stomping towards us with probably the intent to kill.

We started to run down the mountain path with Unimon firing upon us as the sun began to rise. He launched another attack at us causing more of the mountain to come down on our heads. I had to begin carrying Gomamon because he wasn't moving fast enough. Still, no matter how far we could run, Unimon would be right on us.  
"Gomamon! Can't you do something?" I asked him as Unimon flew right before us. Now we were pinned with him in front and rocks behind us. "No good, we're trapped!" In short, we were finished. "Is this the end?" I asked mostly to myself as Unimon began charging his Holy Shot and prepared to snuff us out. I closed my eyes and held Gomamon tight as we prepared for the end. There was then a loud explosion but I didn't feel any pain. I slowly opened my eyes to discover the reason why I wasn't dead. "Birdramon!" Gomamon cried out in relief. Birdramon had rammed Unimon into the mountain and had Sora, Taichi, Ross, Guilmon, and Agumon hanging from her talons.

"Jeez, I didn't think you were actually crazy enough to scout ahead for us!" Ross exclaimed.  
"Yeah, but then that's why we're here to save ya!" Taichi informed.  
"Taichi, Ross, Sora!" I cheered.  
"Are you okay?" Sora asked. Unimon then escaped from the large brid's clutches before he fired a shot that caught Birdramon off guard and sent her down the mountain. "Birdramon!" Sora then slid down the side to get to the wounded phoenix.  
"Agumon!" "You too, Guilmon." Both dinosaurs nodded in understanding.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" Both of them tried to get their claws on Unimon but the horse just flew above them, came back around and smashed the two of them into the mountain side with Ross and Taichi getting caught up in it as well.  
"Ross! Taichi!" I called out. Thankfully, both of their Digimon had protected them.  
"Greymon, you okay?" "Still kicking, Growmon?" Both of them got back up only to be knocked down again. "Greymon!" "Growmon!"  
"Taichi!" "Ross!" The two Adult-Level Digimon cried out. "Mega Flame!" "Exhaust Flame!" They fired back but Unimon was too fast and dodged the attacks. Unimon then fired on the mountain and caused many rocks to fall down towards the two humans. The Digimon then had to turn around and shelter them from the avalanche.

Birdramon had come back into the fight and launched her counter attack.  
"Meteor Wing!" Unimon quickly out maneuvered the attack and rammed head first into Birdramon's chest. The falling Digimon barely missed Sora but caused the ledge she was standing on to break and send her down further.  
"Sora!" Gomamon and I cried out. Damn it! That equine is taking us all out. I then noticed the cause of his aggression. "That black gear… If I take it out…" I was planning on doing something incredibly stupid, but I couldn't see any other way. I got up and motioned myself in a position to jump.  
"Jou!" Gomamon quickly figured out what I was planning. Now's my chance! I jumped and timed it just right as I landed on Unimon's back and grabbed hold of the black gear. The thing felt cold to the touch. "Jou!"  
"I have to pull this out…!" I yanked it and Unimon cried out in pain and proceeded to try and buck me off.  
"Jou, stop! It's impossible!" Gomamon yelled. Too late now. I either pull this thing out, or I get thrown off to my death. I prayed to the gods that it would be the first one.  
"No! I have to do this! I have to protect everyone! Because… I'm the eldest… I'll protect everyone!" Unfortunately, I lost my grip and Unimon successfully threw me off… and straight to the fatal ground below.

"JOU!" As I began falling, I saw off to the side that Gomamon was becoming engulfed in light. Was he evolving? "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!" Ikkakumon was a large walrus like Digimon with two large tusks, a furry white body, and a horn protruding out of his head. He then jumped off the mountainside and landed underneath me to provide a soft cushion for my fall. I stopped my screaming as soon as I landed on his back. Thank you for that. I climbed on to his head and we turned our attention towards Unimon. He launched another Holy Shot at us and Ikkakumon quickly dodged it before responding in kind.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" He cried as the horn on his head began to fill with fire before being launched like a rocket. As it turns out, his horn just seemed to regenerate as he launched more of his horns. The horns missed however.  
"No good! He's fast!" I yelled. That was soon dispelled as the Vulcan part of the attack was revealed as the horns broke away to reveal a missile inside them that turned around and nailed Unimon right in the back! It destroyed the black gear and now freed of its influence, Unimon flew away. "You did it… You did it! You did it!"  
"Taichi, are you okay?" Greymon questioned.  
"Y-Yeah…"  
"How you feeling, Ross?" Growmon wondered.  
"That's twice I've been nearly crushed by rocks in a twenty-four hour period. I swear if this happens a third time…"  
"Is everyone all right?" Sora asked.  
"Yeah! Thank goodness you're all safe!" I said.

 _Infinity Mountain, File Island. A-Day+4. Early Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After every Digimon devolved, we met back up with Jou. I have to admit, he'd been driving me on my nerves all of yesterday but today I now had a newfound respect for him. To not only scout ahead but also deal with Unimon, he's alright in my book.  
"I've changed my opinion of you, Jou. Sorry about last night." Taichi admitted as they shook hands.  
"Same here, I thought I had you figured out, thank goodness I was wrong." I said as I shook his hand as well.  
"Your courage was what made Gomamon evolve, Jou-senpai!" Sora proclaimed.  
"That's wrong!" Gomamon interrupted. "It wasn't because of Jou's courage, but because of my own hard work! Probably!" It's clear he's just being silly. "I mean, it is! It has to be! What? Wanna fight?" Gomamon put up his dukes once more. Jou simply smiled.  
"Thank you, Gomamon. We were saved because of you!" Gomamon could only blush at Jou's words.  
"Look, Gomamon's blushing!" Piyomon teased.  
"Shut up! I'm not!"  
"Hey, what happened to the others?" Jou asked.  
"Eh, Koushiro and Kabuterimon are gonna airlift the rest of the group." I told him.  
"Let's go, everyone! To the peak!" Taichi declared.

About thirty minutes later, we finally reached the top. The real credit would have to go to Jou and Gomamon for scaling this thing, the rest of us cheated.  
"We made it!" Taichi cheered. As we reached the best possible position to get a view of the surroundings, our spirits quickly sank. There was a reason why this place was called File Island… as we unfortunately discovered. "This is…" Taichi muttered. We now learned that we were stuck on a solitary island in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by a vast ocean with no other landmasses in sight.

And to make matters even bleaker, tonight would soon be one of the worst nights of our lives…

* * *

And that was Chapter 8!

You know it's amazing how much a story can change in such short time, example, before April and before I watched the original dub, Ross was supposed to be the oldest and was supposed to accompany Jou up the mountain. But that changed when I realized it would under cut Jou's arc in terms of him feeling like he has to be the responsible one of the group because of his age.

Anyways, next chapter will start to include some Third-Person POVs for certain scenes. And expect the next chapter on the 29th.

Until next time...

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	10. The Messenger of Darkness! Devimon!

Here it is, Chapter 9 and now our first major villain is revealed.

Uh, I really don't have much in terms of shout outs this time so... really all there is to say is now we're getting Third Person POVs.

Anyways, let's just get to it!

* * *

 **Chapter 9: The Messenger of Darkness! Devimon!**

 _Infinity Mountain, File Island. A-Day+4. Early Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

So there we were, standing and looking out from the Peak of Infinity Mountain to see to our despair that we were essentially trapped on an unknown island. I think deep down we all kinda knew this but I guess we just didn't want to believe it. But the question is now, are we doomed to remain on this island or can we somehow find some way to get back home?  
"I don't believe this…" Jou despaired on his knees. "This place really was… An island!" The others soon arrived to see the unfortunate truth. "What do we do now? What do we do?!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

A black gear flew by the mountain side as a large, mighty beast was following it close behind. The beast had the body like that of a man, but with the head and claws of a lion. This was the mighty Leomon, a champion of good Digimon. He was currently on a quest to discover and destroy the source of the black gear scourge.  
"Another one…" He muttered in reference to the gear. "I must do something about this as quickly as possible." Unfortunately, he was not alone. Standing above him was a dark, green creature with horns protruding out of his body including two large ones from his head. He carried a bone club in this right hand and had a large mouth of sharp teeth. This was Leomon's eternal rival, Ogremon.  
"Die, Leomon!" He jumped downward to strike down his foe. Leomon quickly pulled out a sword and blocked the club before it could hit him. The impact disarmed the both of them.

"This isn't the place for a goody-two shoe like you to hang around. Get out!" Ogremon taunted.  
"The black gears that are raining down on us are coming from this mountain. Those gears are turning all of the good Digimon into a frenzy. I cannot ignore this!" He proclaimed as he moved into fighting stance.  
"Then die! Haouken!" Ogremon launched a purple energy attack from his fist known as Haouken or Fist of the Supreme King.  
"Juuouken!" Leomon responded with an orange energy attack from his fist that was referred to as the Fist of the Beast King. The attacks collided and destroyed several of the large boulders around them. It was clear that both foes were at a standstill in terms of power.

"Cease your fighting." A calm, but dark voice said. The two Adult-Level Digimon stopped their fighting in order to find the source of the voice. "From now on, you two must cooperate with each other."  
"This voice is…" Leomon questioned.  
"Devimon?" Ogremon guessed. To their surprise, standing right near them was a tall, black Digimon. He was somewhat thin, but had long arms and two large wings. His two glowing red eyes were staring at the two combatants. "Gimme a break! Why do I have to work with this guy?!"  
"The Chosen Children have arrived." Devimon calmly stated.  
"The Children? You can't mean…" Leomon replied in shock.  
"It's taking quite some time to defeat them."  
"Then you're the one who must be defeated, Devimon! Juuouken!" Sadly for Leomon, Devimon was a master of deception, as the attack merely phased through his body and destroyed a nearby rock. "Wh-What?"  
"How naïve. You thought you could defeat me that easily?" Devimon's hand phased out of the ground behind the lion man and gripped his back. "Death Claw." Leomon roared in pain at the attack. "Accept your baptism of evil." He then let go, and Leomon rose with a blank look in his eyes. He was now a corrupted servant of the devilish Digimon.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After our discovery, everyone essentially took a break. Most of the group was talking amongst themselves, some trying to plan our next move. As for me and Taichi, we decided on a different approach.  
"Taichi?" Agumon asked. "Wha'cha doing?"  
"We're trying to make a map. It might be useful for us later. Two small hills covered with trees to the west." Taichi told me. I was drawing a map of the island while Taichi was giving me out details. Taichi could've drawn it himself, but he was terrible at it. I wasn't that much better, but at least it would be more readable.  
"That's actually a good idea, you two." Koushiro said as he walked up to see our work.  
"Um, that's not that great of a map." Yamato criticized.  
"It's at least slightly better than if Taichi was doing it." Sora added. Oh, they were going to get it.  
"Oh, sorry! I'm not a cartographer!" I snapped.  
"Yeah, back off you guys! It's readable!" Taichi defended.

"It's useless to make a map." Jou moaned. "Everything's hopeless."  
"Why did things have to turn out like this?" Mimi joined in.  
"Mimi…" Palmon said. Soon, the sound of a crash filled our ears.  
"What was that?" Yamato asked. We got up and ran towards the location of the sound; only discover the path we had taken had been destroyed.  
"We can't go through." Takeru observed. Suddenly, walking around the corner from our view came a large lion-man armed with a sword. However, the Digimon didn't seem that worried.  
"Ah, it's Leomon!" Patamon informed.  
"Leomon?"  
"Leomon's a good Digimon!"  
"He's a very strong Digimon who fights for justice!" Gabumon added.  
"He's practically a hero of mine." Guilmon proudly declared. Well, that's nice.  
"Kill… the children!" Oh, that's not good! We didn't even stick around to try to see if maybe we misunderstood him as we took off running towards the other mountain path. Leomon pulled out his sword and jumped after us.  
"Run!" Yamato ordered.

As we reached the peak, the map I drew and gave to Taichi had fallen out of his pocket and was floating towards Leomon's direction. Taichi stopped and turned around to try and retrieve it. I stopped and tried to grab him because it wasn't worth losing his life.  
"Taichi!" "Ross!" Our Digimon cried out. As Leomon reached the peak, Taichi stopped and I grabbed him and began dragging him back.  
"Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" They launched their attacks at the large beast man in order to slow him down. The attacks just barely missed us and managed to reach Leomon, but he blocked it with his sword. However, Agumon's Baby Flame had accidently ignited the map, thus with no need to retrieve it, we ran again.  
"Sorry, Taichi, I burned the map!"  
"Don't worry about it now!"  
"At least we won't pull an Antietam!" I yelled.

As we kept running down the mountain path, we soon found the path blocked by real mean looking green Digimon with a bone club and a voice, who I swear to God, sounds Ratts Tyerell from Episode 1 Racer.  
"Welcome!" He announced but I had a feeling it wasn't a friendly welcome. "I was waiting for ya! Prepare yourselves!"  
"It's Ogremon!" Patamon yelled.  
"Is he supposed to be a good Digimon too?" Takeru asked. I seriously doubt it.  
"He's a genuinely… _Bad_ guy!" Gomamon informed. Mimi shouted from the rear of the group and a quick turn showed we were trapped between Leomon and Ogremon.  
"Chosen Children… Kill them!" Leomon shouted. Chosen Children? Is he referring to us?  
"Damn it, we're trapped between them!" Yamato said.  
"It was an ambush and we walked right into it!" I pointed out.  
"Looks like they were planning this from the start!" Koushiro observed.  
"This can't be! Leomon and Ogremon are mortal enemies!" concerned Piyomon.  
"Hone Konbou!" Ogremon yelled as he charged at us with his bone club raised high as Hone Konbou meant Bone Club.  
"Shishi Ohmaru!" Leomon did the same with his sword out, which translated to Lion King Sword. Both of them were ready to tear us to pieces.

"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" The four of them quickly evolved and managed to knock Leomon away.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!" The remaining three had evolved as well and stopped Ogremon's attack in its tracks. The seven Adult-Level Digimon soon formed a perimeter around us and weren't planning on letting the two attackers through.  
"Takeru, over here!" Yamato grabbed his little brother to better protect him.  
"Get 'em, Greymon!" Taichi ordered. The Digimon began launching their attacks. If we could punch a hole through, we might be able to get away. I felt our odds were pretty good, seven on two is not really that fair of a fight, but hey, we'll take every advantage.  
"Mega Flame!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" "Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!"  
"We can do it! Take 'em down with one hit!" Taichi enthusiastically cheered. "Finish 'em off!"  
"Mega Fla-" Greymon was interrupted as a large amount of boulders were beginning to tumble from atop the mountain and were heading right for us.  
"It's a rockslide!" Jou cried out. The Digimon turned their attention from Leomon and Ogremon and redirected towards the rocks.  
"Fox Fire!" "Meteor Wing!" "Mega Blaster" "Exhaust Flame!" "Mega Flame!" The attacks reduced the boulders to dust that rained down on us.

"Is everyone okay?" Taichi asked.  
"Yeah, somehow!" Yamato responded.  
"Three times! Three times in twenty-four hours, boulders have rained down on me!" I yelled.  
"I'm sick of this!" Mimi complained. You and me both. A look around revealed that our Digimon had reverted back to their Child-Levels and Leomon and Ogremon had vanished.  
"Agumon!" worried Taichi as he ran up to him. The rest of us did the same.  
"I'm okay, just a little tired…" Agumon moaned.  
"Yeah, you had to evolve twice today…" The same could be said for Piyomon, Guilmon, Tentomon, and Gomamon.  
"Where did they go?" Sora questioned the vanishing of our two attackers.  
"That's right! Where's Ogremon?" Koushiro asked.  
"He's not here." Tentomon weakly observed.  
"Neither is Leomon." Palmon added.  
"Maybe they got hit by that rockslide." Gabumon guessed.  
"You really think so?" Guilmon said disheartened.

"There's no way they could've survived if they fell from here!" Jou explained as he looked over the ledge.  
"Neither Leomon nor Ogremon can fly, right?" Sora asked. Piyomon nodded.  
"T-Then we're saved! We're so lucky!"  
"What's wrong, Taichi?" Agumon questioned as Taichi was looking upward and in deep thought.  
"I was wondering why the rocks suddenly fell down…"  
"When the path was destroyed earlier, it could've created a crack in the rocks." Koushiro theorized.  
"Maybe…"

 _File Island. A-Day+4. Sunset._

It was getting close to night and we were in trouble once more. Nothing had really happened after our encounter on Infinity Mountain. We continued on our way to find, well, anything. We had breakfast and lunch but had to use our supplies. In fact, we had to half our lunch because we would've ran out of food, so now we've only got a half meal left with us and if we didn't find some food, well, game over. After walking through another forest, Koushiro began to recall about the events that occurred earlier in the day.

"No matter how you think about it, it's very strange!" Koushiro said aloud.  
"What's strange, Koushiro?" I asked.  
"How could the Digimon evolve twice in one day?"  
"Who cares!" Taichi moaned. "Because of that, we were saved!"  
"Hey… Couldn't we just think that the Digimon have powered up?" Sora questioned. What? Like they've earned enough XP that they can evolve more than once a day?  
"Oh yeah! That's possible." Koushiro settled on.  
"Even if that's true, it was still pretty hard on them…" observed Yamato. The Digimon were all tired and exhausted and that half meal at lunch probably wasn't helping either.  
"Are you okay, Palmon?" Mimi asked her Digimon.  
"No, I'm not."  
"I can't walk anymore…" Piyomon complained.  
"This isn't going to work. Let's look for a place where we can rest for a while." Yamato requested.  
"Preferably, some place with food." I added.  
"Yeah… We're all pretty-" Sora was then interrupted by Jou shouting in surprise.  
"Look over there!" What he was pointing at looked to be like a large mansion that resided in the middle of the woods… we have to check this out.

We quickly ran through the brush to reach the large mansion. It has multiple windows, a few towers, the paint is a faded orange color, the roof is blue and didn't look run down or abandoned in the slightest.  
"All right! It's a normal building!" Jou declared. "There must be humans living in it this time!" Oh, Jou, we really going down this path again? Jou took off for the front door.  
"Wait! It's dangerous to just run in there!" Yamato chased after.  
"What's wrong, Taichi?" Agumon asked for what felt like the tenth time today.  
"This building… I don't remember seeing it from up above."  
"Wasn't it drawn on the map? Did you lose it?" Both of us quickly gave him a hard stare.  
" _You_ burned it up!" I reminded him.  
"Oh, yeah…"  
"You guys didn't see it?" Guilmon questioned.  
"Well, it's possible we missed it, we didn't get that much time to observe." Taichi informed. I nodded in agreement. At the same time, Jou and Yamato opened the door to the manor and walked in.

"Excuse us! Is anyone here?" Jou called out. His voice echoed so it was possible that nobody was here.  
"How's it looking?" Taichi inquired.  
"There doesn't seem to be anything strange about this place…" Yamato observed.  
"But I must say, there's still something eerie about this." Koushiro worried.  
"You're right." agreed Sora.  
"You guys aren't thinking about leaving, are you?" questioned Jou. "We finally found such a nice place!"  
"Well, he's right about that…" Yamato reluctantly admitted.  
"Ah, that's a pretty picture!" Takeru exclaimed. The said picture was that of an angel on the wall.  
"It really is beautiful!" Mimi added. "It's a painting of an angel."  
"Takeru, what's an angel?" Patamon asked.  
"Well…" I guess Takeru couldn't really explain the answer.  
"There's no way a bad Digimon could be hanging around here when there's such a pretty angel painting on the wall!" Jou determined.  
"Jou-san, you forget. God loved Lucifer above all other angels even an hour before he fell." I told him.  
"Well, I have to admit, it's getting harder for us to set camp these days." Sora seemed to surrender to the idea of sleeping here tonight.  
"Guess there's no choice." Yamato said as he looked at all the tired Digimon who were almost dozing off.  
"Hey, let's go, everyone!" Taichi shouted as we decided to sleep here for the night and closed the doors behind us.

"I guess, now that we're in here, we should make the most of it." Sora suggested.  
"Let's look further inside." Taichi said. "C'mon, Agumon!" Both he and Gabumon both looked weird as they started walking off towards a hallway.  
"What's wrong, Gabumon?" asked Yamato.  
"I smell food!" He informed. We all gave a surprised gasp. What? Food? Here? "And it's a feast!" Another gasp. "Follow me!" We did as we were told and found out he wasn't kidding. We opened the door to the dining hall and found a huge feast of all kinds of food waiting on the table.  
"That's food… right…?" Taichi questioned, we all wanted to be sure about this.  
"That's what it looks like…" Koushiro muttered.  
"We're so lucky today!" Jou exclaimed. Calm down there, man.  
"This is absurd!" Yamato tried to bring him back to reality.  
"Yeah, the stuff is probably wax or something…" I insisted.

"They're right. Things are going too smoothly to be true!" warned Sora. The Digimon on the other hand, well, they tend to think more with their stomachs as they began to chow down and somehow, it really was food.  
"Anything wrong with it, Agumon?" Taichi asked.  
"No, it's delicious!"  
"Being able to eat this scrumptious food is like a sin!" Tentomon said.  
"I-I'm gonna eat!" Jou threatened. "It's okay to think that we're lucky once in awhile!" He sat down at the table and got his utensils, fully prepared to dig in. "Let's eat!" Well… none of us were planning on starving so we decided to join in.  
"Count me in!" "I'm too hungry to even care!" "Me too!" "Me too." "I'll eat too!" "Hey, Takeru… I'll eat it too!" "I guess we have to make some sacrifices in the name of hunger!" "I've never tasted food so good…in my entire life!"

 _Forest Mansion, File Island. A-Day+4. Evening._

As we explored more of the mansion, we discovered a large spa room deeper in the building. Shoot, as soon as we saw that, we were practicality tripping over our clothes just to get in the water. The bath was even separated in two so the girls and boys could be separated. After relaxing for a few minutes, Taichi jumped into the water on the guys' side of the pool.  
"Hey, don't jump in!" Yamato argued.  
"Oh, don't say that! We haven't had a proper bath for a long time! Right?"  
"Yeah, it's been like six days. We needed this." I said.  
"Really! Who'd have thought this place had a bathtub? I can feel the tension draining from me." Koushiro informed.  
"Would you like some electricity to help things along?" Tentomon obliviously stated, apparently not knowing that electricity and water was a bad mix.  
"No, please don't…"  
"I'm coming in…" The door opened and out came Jou clutching on to his towel. Oh, come on, Jou! Have some self-respect, it's not like we're hiding anything. I clearly wasn't the only one to notice this.  
"Oh, I can't forgive that." Yamato stated. "Guys who guard themselves in an all men's bath."  
"I agree." Taichi gave a smug grin before the both of them hopped out and tried to drag Jou in.  
"W-W-What are you doing?!" Jou shouted.  
"What are they doing?" Patamon repeated.  
"Humans are hard to understand." Tentomon answered.  
"Hey, where's Gabumon?" I asked Guilmon.  
"I don't think he wants to get his fur wet. I'm more curious on where Gomamon is…" He's right, Gomamon was missing. The answer was given a moment later as Gomamon was tossed over the wall from the girls' side by a Poison Ivy attack and landed square on the head of Jou, knocking him onto the floor naked.

After the baths, we all got ready for bed. We managed to find a room that had nine large beds in them, so everyone and their Digimon partner could share a bed. Takeru was our tester in terms of how comfortable the beds were.  
"It's soft!" He declared. Kid was planning to sleep in a bed robe way too big for him.  
"They're real beds!" Koushiro said. "They even have sheets and everything!"  
"This feels like camping school!" Mimi compared.  
"What do you mean, 'feels like?'" Jou muttered. "We were supposed to be in summer camp to begin with, so it's…" He stopped when he saw the rest of us looking pretty depressed. "I'm sorry."  
"No, you're right! We all left thinking we were just going to camp." Taichi reminded.  
"Today's the fifth day since we've come to File Island. The school and our folks must be in an uproar." Yamato stated.  
"Shoot, my dog Drew was probably waiting for my dad for a year and a half… now he's gonna wait for me." I said. Drew is a Black English Cocker Spaniel that mostly stays at the Yagami's.  
"Papa… Mama…" Mimi began to tear up.  
"Let's get some sleep. The Digimon are tired too." Sora insisted.  
"G'night!" Taichi said a bit too loud.  
"Good night." The rest of us said as we turned out the light and went to sleep.

 _Forest Mansion, File Island. A-Day+4. Night.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

"Taichi! Taichi!" I had managed to fall asleep until I was awoken in the middle of the night. I turned over and saw that Agumon was out of bed.  
"What?"  
"Taichi… I have to go to the bathroom." You woke me up for that?  
"Well, then go."  
"Umm…" Really?  
"Fine." I reluctantly conceded as I got out of bed and walked with Agumon out of the room. "Can't you go to the bathroom by yourself?"  
"But you're scared to go to the bathroom at night too."  
"That's not true! I'm old enough!" I'm fine going at night, though maybe at my own apartment and not in mysterious mansion on a mysterious island filled with dangerous monsters. We reached the bathroom after a minute and Agumon got into one of the stalls. "How long are you gonna take?" I asked him. "I'm sleepy, so hurry up!"  
"This is weird… I ate so much, so I thought it'd be a big one…"  
"If you're not gonna go, I'm leaving!" I began to walk out.  
"Wait, Taichi! I'll finish up!" He started making all kinds of sounds and saying stuff that I couldn't full make out. Unfortunately, that was suddenly stopped in a heartbeat.

The door to the next stall exploded and out jumped Ogremon!  
"That stinks, damn it!" Our fight or flight instincts kicked in so fast. We quickly ran out of the bathroom to warn the others… God, please, don't tell me Leomon has already taken care of them.  
"It's Ogremon!" I yelled, hoping the others heard. But sadly, like before, we walked into an ambush as Leomon now stood between us and the rest of the gang.  
"The children… Kill…!"  
"Leomon!" I said.  
"You should have just slept quietly." An unfamiliar voice said. I turned my head to see standing on the banister was a tall dark Digimon that looked very evil. Shoot, looks like Ross's line about Lucifer was kind of correct because this guy screamed the Devil. I mustered up my courage to at least ask my question.  
"W-Who are you?!"  
"That's Devimon!" Agumon informed me. Wasn't off about the Devil.  
"Devimon?"  
"He's the strongest evil Digimon!" Just our luck.

"Time to end this dream." He smiled. I don't know what was more unnerving. That smile, his appearance, or that calm voice. Suddenly the whole mansion began to disintegrate around us! All that was left were a few beams and chucks of the building. I then heard the girls starting to scream from nearby, so at least they were up. Devimon then lifted his hand and their beds began to float in the sky. All I could make out were their screams and yells at each other. Another quick look around and I saw that I was in my underwear and Agumon was hunched over.  
"Taichi… I have no energy… Even though I ate so much…" As soon as he said that, my stomach screamed at me to find some food.  
"Of course not. The food and baths were all illusions."  
"What?" Now, it all makes sense. "Why are you doing this to us?!" I demanded.  
"Because you… are the Chosen Children." There's that name again. What does that mean 'We're the Chosen Children'?  
"The Chosen… Children?"  
"Yes. You are nuisances to me. Me, who plans to take over this world with my black gears!" He motioned his hands once again and soon everything began to rumble. Large chucks of Infinity Mountain collapsed reveal the horrific sight of being filled with black gears! The cracks soon spread out from the mountain to all over the island. "File Island has already been taken over by the black gears." The island then soon began breaking apart and sail out far into the open ocean.

"The other side of the ocean is next!"  
"The other side of the ocean?" Wait, are there entire continents similar to this island? "You mean, there's more to this world this island?"  
"You won't be seeing it. Because this spot will be your graves!"  
"The children…" Crap! Forgot about Leomon! "Kill…!" Agumon ran up in an effort to defend.  
"Baby…!" He could barely produce a spark.  
"Juuouken!" The attack knocked Agumon away.  
"Agumon-!" Leomon charged right at me and threw me up against the wall with his hand around my neck.  
"Taichi!" Agumon cried.  
"It's useless to struggle!" Devimon taunted. "You have no more power left to evolve! Finish him, Leomon!" Leomon unsheathed his sword for the kill. We can't evolve and we can't fight back. So this is how it all ends huh? I guess I'll be seeing St. Peter at the gates then. I'll be sure to wait for Ross as he probably won't be too far behind. Still, a quick prayer at the end couldn't hurt, right?

Well, I guess it was worth it because my bed crashed right next to us and that strange device slid over to Leomon's foot. Once it made contact, it began to glow bright and forced Leomon to recede in pain. A large black mist shot out of his back as he roared in pain and the blank look in his eyes turned into blue irises.  
"The evil has vanished!" He said. Oh, great! Looks like he shook off his dark influence. I guess my prayers were answered. I picked up the weird item.  
"What's going on here?" I asked.  
"So you are the Chosen Children…" There's that name again. Devimon was clearly upset about this turn of events and dropped the others from the sky in an effort to kill them. Thankfully, Leomon wasn't planning on letting this happen.  
"Juuouken!" He cried as his attack force Devimon to move and thus release his control on the other's beds and sent them flying off in different directions. We were now going to be scattered but still alive, and that's important. "Devimon! How dare you use such foul play against me! It's unforgivable!" He's a bad guy, Leomon, these guys don't play fair.

Ogremon jumped out from his position and attacked Leomon. The two locked each other's weapons before disengaging.  
"Looks like we're destined to battle." The ogre said.  
"Boy." Leomon referred to me. "Leave this to me and run."  
"But…"  
"No complaints!" He stabbed his sword into the ground causing the platform me and Agumon were on to fall over and dropped us on a tiny piece of land that was sailing away from Infinity Mountain. I looked on in sheer disappointment as Leomon started to get smaller the further we got away, I wanted to help him but he was right. We were not a match as of right now. "You are the only hope for this world! Survive!" Ogremon attacked again but Leomon knocked him away.  
"Leomon!" I cried out.  
"If there is a chance, let us meet again!" Devimon then dropped behind him.  
"Leomon!" I tried to warn him, but I guess it didn't work as I just heard him scream out in pain. "LEOMON!" So there we were, separated and lost from everyone else, and now there was a dark Digimon actively hunting after us.

But one thing is for sure, I don't know how or when, but we're gonna make Devimon pay dearly. He wasn't going to succeed in his plans to take over this world…

* * *

And that was Chapter 9! Sorry for cutting the deadline short again, but like the song _Stress_ by Jim's Big Ego _'I'm addicted to stress, that's the way that I get things done.'_

Oh, by the way, that Antietam line is a reference to the Special Order 191 from the American Civil War, just Wiki it to learn more.

Anyways, one thing you may notice is some of the children's religious point of view. I've established that the McGlathery's and Yagami's are Church of Christ, I've got Mimi as a Lutheran, and the rest being Shinto, though I'm kinda leaning on Atheist in terms of Koushiro, but I'm still undecided on that one. Besides, Taichi's bed crashes and slides his Digivice next to Leomon? That's got to be some Devine Intervention because no way Devimon would let that happen.

So, I'm gonna take a day break, so expect the next chapter either on the 31st or my deadline of June 1st.

'Til then take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	11. Clash! The Freezing Digimon!

Here we go, Chapter 10!

As usual, we've got some shout out. Thanks for the follow **Jayfeather912** and the fav **Tomer3392** , you guys rock!

That's all I've really got to say so, on we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Clash! The Freezing Digimon!**

 _Infinity Mountain. A-Day+4. Night.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

On the Peak of Infinity Mountain, Devimon had used his power to place atop the peak a building that looked ancient Greek in nature. The inside of it was aligned with many dark statues of demonic monsters, perfect for a villain like him to call his solitude. The Devil Digimon could only laugh. While his original plan to take out the Chosen Children all at once had failed thanks to one of them waking up at just the right time and somehow successfully freeing Leomon from his influence, he still felt confident. Leomon was back under his control and the children were scattered all over the remains of File Island. He was sure that victory would be his.  
"Even if they are the Chosen Children, they're helpless alone." He said to himself. "I'll persecute all of you without mercy!" He then sent out his dark gears to continue corrupting and controlling any Digimon that he saw fit.

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+4. Before Midnight.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

After drifting on that chuck of rock floating in the ocean for what felt like an hour, we finally started moving towards a larger piece of the now destroyed island. The only problem was that the thing was covered in ice and we were moving really fast towards it.  
"We're gonna hit!" I shouted. As we hit, we were sent flying off the rock and into the cold snow. I was almost completely buried in it and all I had for clothing was my underwear. I managed to get out from the snow but the cold problem still remained.  
"It's cold!" I told Agumon. "I'm gonna freeze to death!" When I got no reaction from him, I looked over to see him still buried with this legs kicking. "Agumon, hang in there!" I grabbed him and pulled him out but the force threw me back on my butt. Amazingly, what landed in my lap were my clothes. "My clothes are here. They're frozen solid."  
"Okay, hold out you shirt. Baby Flame!" Agumon fired off his attack and completely melted the ice off of my shirt.  
"Nice going, Agumon! Now do the same for my shorts." He did the same for my shorts, but maybe got them too well as they caught fire. "Hot, hot, hot!" I buried them in the snow to put out the flame and snuffed the fire.  
"I burned them…" Agumon apologized. Eh, it wasn't too bad, it'll be fine.

After spending a few minutes getting everything back on and taking a look around, Agumon and I came across yet another weird sight. Lined up in the snow were ten post boxes side by side with one another. At this point though, I wasn't really caring as much. I was more concerned on where we were, where the others were, and where we were going. I pulled out my telescope and looked to see Infinity Mountain shrinking in my sight.  
"We're getting steadily farther from Infinity Mountain. I wonder what happened to Leomon…" Did Devimon possess him again or just flat out kill him? "Oh yeah, and everyone else…" My priorities might be a little off right now, but then again I'm tired and trying hard not to fall asleep in the snow. "Everyone is gone. We've all been separated… Well, at least we're probably alive… I hope…"  
"Hey, Taichi, where do you think we're headed?"  
"How should I know?"  
"But I don't know anything outside of File Island."  
"What about the other side of the ocean that Devimon was talking about?"  
"I know nothing about it."

"The world on the other side…" My thoughts soon became interrupted when the ground shook and behind us rising out of the snow was a very angry looking snowman-like Digimon.  
"Yukidarumon!" It announced.  
"It's Yukidarumon! He's an Adult-Level Freezing Digimon made up of icy snow. His signature move, Zettai Reido Punch, can freeze anything!" Agumon informed. Yukidarumon grabbed a bunch of snow and rolled it up into a very large ball, bigger than the both of us and tossed it. We jumped off the ledge to avoid being flattened by it and slid down the snow right past him. "Yukidarumon is supposed to be a peaceful Digimon! Huh?" We both noticed on the snow-mon's back was one of Devimon's black gears.  
"A black gear!" Yukidarumon turned around and began growling at us.  
"He's being controlled!" The two of us yelled.

"Zettai Reido Punch!" He charged right at us with his fist raised to deliver his Absolute Zero Punch. A dodge at the last second kept us from getting hit and he punched the postbox instead.  
"What the heck?!" I said.  
"It's frozen solid!" observed Agumon. The box looked kinda like my clothes earlier. Encased in ice.  
"We need to get that black gear out of him somehow!"  
"Let me handle it! Baby Flame!" Now, when it comes to fire versus ice, usually ice melts. However, that was not the case here as the icy creature merely held his hands up and blocked it.  
"Yukidarumon!" He said again.  
"No good! It's not working!" I muttered.  
"Zettai Reido Punch!" He came charging towards us again. Another dodge and we took off running with him swinging wildly.  
"If he hits us with that, we're finished! Can't you evolve, Agumon?!"  
"I'm so hungry I can't get any strength!" So how are you using you Baby Flame? Eh, no time to think about that! We need to keep moving.

"Yuki, Yuki, Yuki…" He kept mumbling as he followed us. Unfortunately, we ran right into an impassible ice wall.  
"Ah, a dead end!" Agumon shouted.  
"No way!" We turned around to see our path was now blocked by the controlled Digimon. "Do something!"  
"Okay Taichi, throw me!"  
"Throw you?"  
"Yeah, aim for Yukidarumon and throw me! Then I can jump onto his back and use my Baby Flame to remove the black gear at point blank range!" Well, it's better than nothing, I guess. However, that proved to be too much as Agumon was about as heavy as he looked when I picked him up so no throwing!  
"Ah no, I can't throw you over his back like this!"  
"Keep trying! He's almost upon us!" If I keep trying, I'm gonna pull a hernia!  
"Zettai Reido Punch!" Thankfully, the sheer weight of Agumon forced me on my back and we slid right between Yukidarumon's legs as he missed us and punched the cliff wall causing him to be buried in the snow. The sheer quietness was somewhat unnerving but the respite would give me enough time to enact my plan for getting rid of the gear.

"All right, now while we still have the chance… Agumon, fold yourself into a ball!" He did as he was told.  
"Like this?" Perfect… now only got one chance for this.  
"I'll show you the miracle kick of an ace striker!"  
"Yukidarumon!" The snow Digimon burst from his burial and turned his attention towards us. I backed a few steps to give me some room to run. I then charged right for Agumon.  
"Shoot!" I gave him a hard kick that sent him flying… though how I didn't break my foot or how he essentially was gaining air was beyond me. The plan, however, worked to perfection as Agumon landed on Yukidarumon's back.  
"Baby Flame!" The icy Digimon's back was a lit in flames.  
"Hot, hot, hot!" He yelled. "It's hot!" He kept jumping around with Agumon holding on tight until he was throw off and the gear flew out of Yukidarumon's back. The gear then landed in the snow before it fragmented.

"We did it!" I cheered as we ran up to the collapsed Yukidarumon, who I hoped was as friendly as Agumon claimed.  
"Huh? Why was I acting so violent?" He asked as he got on his knees, though even when he did that he was still looking down at us.  
"Devimon was controlling you with his black gear." Agumon explained as the snow Digimon got back up on his own two feet.  
"And you got rid of it for me? Thank you. You're not hurt, are you?"  
"We're fine." I assured. "We don't even have a scratch on us." After I said that, Yukidarumon put his finger up to his face as if he was recalling something. "What?"  
"I remember seeing a kid like you and a Gabumon landing on an island over there." He pointed off to the island closest to us.  
"Eh, a Gabumon?" Agumon asked.  
"It's gotta be Yamato!" That's good. If we can just regroup, then surely we could be able to defeat Devimon. However, it appeared that the island was getting further and further away. "Yamato's on that island?"  
"But how do we get there? I can't swim…" Great, back to square one.  
"As my thanks for saving me, I'll help you cross over there!" Yukidarumon said. He then charged at the water. "Zettai Reido Punch!" The resulting punch created a small walkway of ice on the water.  
"Th-That's so cool! You made a road out of ice!" I exclaimed.  
"If I keep punching a road along that island, we'll get to it in no time."  
"B-But is this okay? This ice won't crack or anything above the ocean, will it?" Agumon questioned the structural integrity of the ice road.  
"Look! It's perfectly fine!" The snow Digimon began jumping up and down to show how strong it was.  
"O-Okay, okay! We get it, so you can stop now!" I shouted. The last thing we needed right now was to be delayed any longer. We followed Yukidarumon close behind as he began throwing more punches in order to keep the bridge going. Hang on, Yamato, we're on our way!

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

After we had crashed on the island, I quickly got my clothes back on, but I didn't know of how much help they'd be in this snowy climate. Stupid me for wearing a sleeveless shirt. Soon, me and Gabumon began exploring the area for any sign of the others, especially Takeru. That might be more difficult though as the weather is picking up and it's getting colder. Damn Devimon, I'll make him pay for his deception!

"Takeru!" I called out. I feel terrible; my little brother might be all alone out there and with Devimon on the prowl… I need to find him now! "Hey, Takeru! Where are you? Takeru!" I soon began coughing. Great, did I come down with something? That's the last thing Takeru needs.  
"Yamato!" concerned Gabumon. I ignored him; I've got more important things to worry about.  
"Takeru! Answer me! Takeru!" I then tripped and fell face first into the snow.  
"Yamato! Yamato, there's a cave over there. Let's go take a break." A cave? Maybe Takeru is in there! I got up and ran towards it.  
"Takeru!" It was all for not. The cave was empty. I almost felt like crying. I'm supposed to be looking after him… and I can't do that. The cave then lit up and I turned around to see that Gabumon had started a fire.

"Hey, Yamato. There's no point in hurrying. Besides, you look like you've caught a cold. Let's wait here until the snowstorm passes."  
"No, I'm fine. You take a rest first." I coughed again.  
"Don't go!"  
"Let go of me! Takeru is…!"  
"I'll go instead! I'll go look for Takeru in your place. So just wait there quietly."  
"Gabumon…"  
"Look, I'll be fine! Since I'm wearing fur!" He laughed. He then pushed me close and sat me down in front of the fire. "I'll be going now, so wait right here, okay?"  
"Gabumon!" He ignored me and ran off back out into the snow… leaving me all along in the cave. I spent what felt like a good half an hour, staring at the fire and coughing. I know what Gabumon said, but I just can't keep still. I have to find Takeru! So against my better judgement, I got up and went out into the storm.  
"TAKERU!" I yelled out.

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Pre-Dawn.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

We kept following Yukidarumon for hours, thankfully, it wasn't too cold but still, I wished I had at least three layers of blankets around me.  
"Zettai Reido Punch!" He extended the bridge once again but it felt like we weren't actually making progress.  
"How much farther do we have to go?!" I questioned.  
"I'm getting sleepy…" Great, now Agumon's dozing off again.  
"That island is also moving, so if we don't hurry we'll lose sight of it." Yukidarumon informed.  
"Man, Agumon, if you could fly, we would have gotten there a long time ago."  
"Well, I'm sorry I can't." He took offence to that comment.  
"What, are you mad?" I laughed. "It's just a joke! Don't lose to an inferiority complex!"  
"I have no inferiority complex." He turned his back to me. Suddenly, we were both picked up by Yukidarumon and placed on his quite literal cold shoulder.  
"Let's not fight. Here, it's more pleasant this way, right?"  
"I-It certainly is, but… Your body is seriously ice." I told him. Well, at least we wouldn't have to walk anymore.

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Dawn._

After taking a nap on Yukidarumon's shoulders, we were woken up by him.  
"We're here." He informed. Both Agumon and I yawned at the news before we hopped off.  
"Thank you!" I said. We wouldn't have been able to make it without him. "I wonder where Yamato and Gabumon fell?"  
"Really… Oh, yeah, the middle of the island. I think they fell inside that forest…" He was referring to the large forest up on the ridge.  
"Well, then, let's go!" After that, it took us an hour before we finally got to the forest. Then there was the matter of find Yamato and Gabumon.  
"They should be around here…" Yukidarumon muttered.  
"Taichi, look at that!" exclaimed Agumon. Somewhat buried in the snow was one of the beds from Devimon's fake mansion.  
"There's no doubt about it now. They must be near here." I concluded. "Hey, Yamato!"  
"Gabumon!" Agumon called out for his fellow Digimon.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

The last thing I remember was feeling the cold starting to claim me and falling over in the snow with my last thoughts being how I failed Takeru by not finding him and dying in the snow. Imagine my surprise when I start to slowly start waking up and feeling even better than I did before. I felt a nice warm blanket on my chest before I felt it pulled away and the sounds of footsteps moving towards the back of the cave. A quick look would reveal that it was Gabumon running away. Did he give me his pelt as a way of keeping me warm?

"Gabumon? You kept me warm all night?" He chuckled at me.  
"Are you okay now?" He then sneezed hard. "Ehh, that's strange…"  
"Gabumon! You ended up getting my cold…" Now I feel kinda bad about that. "I'm sorry. But I'm feeling completely better now. Thank you."  
"Now, I'm embarrassed…"  
"Hey, Yamato!" A voice called out from outside the cave.  
"Ah, that's Taichi's voice!" We both ran outside to see that in fact Taichi and Agumon were running towards us.  
"Hey!" He cheered.  
"Taichi!" I said.  
"Yamato!" We all shared a small laugh, just happy that we managed to reunite.

"I thought I'd never see you again!"  
"How'd you find us here?" Taichi looked over to the large snow bear.  
"Well, Yukidarumon saw you two fall in this area."  
"Good to see that you're back together." He said. Well, if he saw us, then maybe he saw the others.  
"Did you see anybody else?" I asked him.  
"Um, well… You two were the only ones who fell on this island. The others must have landed on different islands." So… the others were still lost…  
"Different islands…" Taichi put his hand over my shoulder.  
"Hey, don't get depressed!" Taichi assured. Gabumon sneezed once again. Well, at least we've proven that Digimon can get sick.  
"What's wrong?" Agumon asked the sick Digimon.  
"I think I've got a cold…"  
"A cold, huh?" Yukidarumon inquired. "Wait just a second." He turned around and walked back into the forest.  
"Where are you going, Yukidarumon?" Taichi questioned but got no response.

"So even Digimon can catch colds." Taichi teased Gabumon. I grabbed him by the elbow after that comment.  
"Stop making fun of him! Gabumon was…!"  
"What, I was just kidding! Why are you getting all worked up?" The auguring was only distracted thanks to Gabumon's sneezing.  
"Hey, why don't you rest inside the cave?" offered Agumon.  
"Yeah, I'll do that." The two of them walked into the cave.  
"Now then." Taichi looked back at me. "What should we do?"  
"Isn't it obvious? We're going to look for the others."  
"So I'm asking, how are we going to look for them? I'm sure everyone's separated and they're all on different islands now. How can we look when we can't even fly?" I crossed my arms and turned by back away from him.  
"I'll swim if I have to."  
"You idiot. This place is like the North Pole. We'll die from hypothermia if we even lose a minute."  
"Then I'll build a raft from the trees, okay?!" He put both his hands on my shoulders.  
"Hey, Yamato, calm down! Everyone is fine! I'm sure everyone is getting along fine, even though we're separated!" How can he be so sure of that?

"More importantly, doesn't it concern you where this island is headed?"  
"'More importantly?'" Does he not even care about the others?! Every word he would say next started to boil my blood.  
"I've been thinking that it could be headed towards the other side of the world, like Devimon said."  
"What do you mean, 'more importantly?!'"  
"What?" That was all he could say before I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, though he quickly threw me off. "Stop it!"  
"Is there anything more important than looking for the others?! What's this talk about the 'other side of the world?' You can go there by yourself! I'm going to go save Takeru… and the others!" I turned around and started sprinting off through the forest towards the edge of the island. If he won't take some responsibility and leadership for the others wellbeing, then I'll do it myself!  
"Yamato!"

"Hold it right there, Yamato!" I then felt Taichi tackle me to the ground. Okay, so he's faster than I thought. "If we go to the other side of the world, we might find a way to see the others again! I understand how you're feeling, but…" How I'm feeling? Is he referring to Ross? Yesterday, he said Ross was the strongest one of us, so why would he be worried about every little thing that happens to him. They're not even brothers! Takeru could be in trouble for all we know!  
"Like hell you can understand how I'm feeling!" I swung around and gave him a left hook to the jaw that knocked him off me.  
"Yamato!" "Taichi!" Our two Digimon called out as they caught up with us.  
"That insensitivity of yours is what pisses me off!"  
"What did you say?! You little!" He jumped up and tackled me once again. When we landed on the ground, he punched me in the face. Then I rolled him over so I was on top and responded with another punch. We kept doing this over and over before we started rolling down the hill.  
"Stop it!" Agumon cried.  
"This is no time to be fighting!" begged Gabumon as we kept rolling.  
"Look out!"  
"You're heading towards a cliff!"  
"The cliff!" The both shouted.

As we stopped on the edge of the cliff, Taichi managed to get on top of me with his fist raised to punch me again.  
"You…!"  
"Takeru!" I shouted. I couldn't help myself as I felt the tears filling up my eyes. "Takeru… He can't do anything on his own!" I confessed.  
"Yamato… you… Hikari…" Wait, who's Hikari? Well, whoever that is, it cause him to unclench his fist. A moment later, the cliff beneath us collapsed sending us over.  
"Taichi!" "Yamato!" I was falling till I felt a sudden stop due to Taichi grabbing my hand and using his left to hang on a branch.  
"Yamato!"  
"Taichi!"  
"I won't let go, even if we end up dying!"  
"Yamato!" "Taichi!" Agumon and Gabumon were trying to climb down after us.  
"Ah, no, I'm so hungry I can't get any strength!" Agumon complained.  
"If I could evolve into Garurumon, I'd be able to pull them up…" Gabumon said before he sneezed again. "It's Mojyamon!" Oh great, we're being attacked? "With a black gear!"  
"It's too late; he's already being controlled by Devimon!"  
"Icicle Rod!" The aforementioned Mojyamon yelled. We felt the cliff rumble before the branch collapsed and we all started falling again… right on top of Yukidarumon's head.

"What are you doing?" He asked us. "You scared me, falling out of nowhere like that."  
"You saved us!" The Digimon answered.  
"Thanks." I said.  
"That was good timing, Yukidarumon!" Taichi praised.  
"You're welcome. Here, look." He showed us what he was carrying. "I brought food for you guys. And some herbs for the cold." Taichi grabbed the berries.  
"You're so thoughtful! Thank you!" We all started to eat some of the food that was brought, because we were all starving, and Agumon and Gabumon needed it because I'm sure that Mojyamon was coming back.  
"I was so hungry!" Agumon informed.  
"Here, the herbs." Yukidarumon handed Gabumon the herbs. He began chewing them before he gave one of the weirdest looks on his face.  
"It's bitter!" We all laughed at that before a large yeti-bigfoot mix landed right behind Yukidarumon with a black gear in his chest. This must have been Mojyamon. We all panicked and ran for cover.  
"Let me take care of him." The snowman Digimon offered. The two charged at one another but Yukidarumon used a shoulder tackle that sent the yeti flying. He crashed into the cliff before charging forward again. "Zettai Reido Punch!" His punch missed and Mojyamon picked him up and threw him.  
"Hone Hone Boomerang!" He pulled out a bent bone he called his Bone Bone Boomerang and threw it right towards us. We all ducked and the bone came right back to its thrower. All right, enough of this charade. We've got food in our bellies now, so time to show this controlled Digimon what we've got.

"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" Garurumon ran straight ahead towards another toss of the bone boomerang. However, being canine in nature, he caught it in his mouth like he was playing fetch. He then chewed down on the bone, shattering it.  
"Nice job, Garurumon!" I cheered.  
"Get him, Greymon!" Taichi ordered.  
"Mega Flame!" The fireball missed as the yeti jumped out of the way at the last second before he used both his large feet to kick Greymon to the ground. Yukidarumon snuck up behind Mojyamon and got him in an arm lock that left his chest wide open.  
"Greymon, aim for the black gear!" He said.  
"Mega Flame!" The attack connected and the black gear was easily destroyed! The two snow Digimon were thrown back into the cliff wall before Mojyamon shrunk back down to what I assume was his normal height.  
"You did it!" praised Taichi.

We looked at the cliff wall to see that it was full of black gears. Those must be the reason why these islands are moving.  
"Those black gears are separating Yamato and Takeru." Garurumon said. "Fox Fire!" The gears were engulfed in the blue flame and when it dispersed, the gears were all broken and short circuiting.  
"Huh? What happened to me?" Mojyamon asked. "I think I was making a ruckus…"  
"It wasn't your fault." Agumon assured.  
"It's all because of the black gear." Gabumon added.  
"Really?"  
"They're right. It was the same for me." Yukidarumon told him.

"Taichi." I said.  
"Huh?"  
"We need to hurry and find Takeru and the others…"  
"What?" He was referring to the sounds the black gears were making. We turned to see that the gears were starting to spin the opposite direction.  
"They're turning backwards." Agumon observed.  
"The island is moving again!" Gabumon guessed.  
"Could it be… this island is going back?" I asked. Taichi turned and pulled out his telescope.  
"Infinity Mountain is getting closer! We're going back!" He informed.  
"And that's where Devimon is."  
"Guess we shouldn't waste time fighting." I nodded. We then did an above the elbow handshake. "I'm sure Takeru is doing his best."  
"Yeah. He is my little brother after all. Hey, Taichi?"  
"Yeah, what is it?"  
"Who's Hikari?" He laughed.  
"Remember how I said I know how you feel?" I nodded. "Hikari's my little sister. In fact, she's only a week older than Takeru." He then gave me a smile that I knew deep down he really did care for the others. I should've never doubted him in the first place. We then looked back to see Infinity Mountain slowly getting closer and closer.

Brace yourself, Devimon. We're coming after you…

* * *

And that was Chapter 10! Chapter 11 will be coming at the latest June 4th.

Okay, time for a bit of rambling but I feel it is needed. Why the heck didn't Taichi mention to Yamato in the original Dub that he had a little sister? I mean I know he says 'I know how you feel' but Yamato clearly doesn't understand. In the English Dub, it's understandable because we don't meet young Kari Kamiya until Episode 21: Home Away from Home that premired in English speaking countries on October 16th, 1999. However, Japanese speakers would've met Hikari Yagami on March 6th, 1999 on Japan TV when the series pilot aired that showed the whole Greymon/Parrotmon clash at Hikarigaoka in the self named Digimon Adventure. (The pilot in English would serve as the first act of the movie released on October 6th, 2000...which 6 year old me was there on opening day.) Hell, the first episode of the show premired in Japan the day after on the 7th of March. Just a little rambling.

Finally, that handshake Taichi and Yamato do at the end is totally the same one Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers give in Predator! 'Dillion! You son of a bitch!' *Proceds to give best movie handshake ever!* Speaking of which, I'm gonna spend the rest of the night watching Total Recall.

So I guess with that I should say...  
*In deep Austrian accent*  
See you at the party, everyone!

 _ **"Push the button, Frank**_."


	12. Kentarumon the Defender!

Here it is, Chapter 11.

I know I said I was going to upload yesterday, but that was an error I corrected. I meant today, so still keeping with my deadline.

Anyways, no shout outs this time so, let's go!

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Kentarumon the Defender!**

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa.__

After Devimon destroyed the island and scattered all of us apart, Palmon and I ended up crashing in a jungle area. We spent the next few hours just lying low and getting some sleep, I was just too tired to do any walking as soon as we landed. By morning, I felt that I at least had enough energy to start looking for the others.  
"I hate this…" I moaned to Palmon. "Where are we?" We had been walking for at least thirty minutes with no sign of making any progress.  
"Since we were blown away so suddenly, I can't be sure, but… I think this is a jungle."  
"Well, even I know that… What'll happen to us now?"  
"I don't know, but we should try to continue looking for the others in the meantime."  
"Y-Yeah, you're right. There has to be someone close by." We continued on our way as soon as we finished our little conversation.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi_

When we had finally landed during the night after we escaped from Devimon's clutches, me and Tentomon's first goal was to hurry and find the others, after all, there's safety in numbers. However, my body wouldn't let me as I just had to have more rest. Once it was morning, my body felt refreshed enough to at least continue the search. After wandering for a few hours, we soon came across this large rock wall with what looked like some ruins carved into wall. I couldn't help myself but be mesmerized by the sight.  
"Koushiro-han? Instead of staring at ruins, we should look for the others, shouldn't we?"  
"No. If I find out how these ruins came about, then that information might turn out to be useful later on!" Besides, it's not like we were making much headway in terms of searching for the others. I walked inside the structure with Tentomon flying in close behind.  
"Koushiro-han…"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

I was starting to feel pretty hungry, made sense considering it was breakfast and apparently all that food we ate last night was a mirage or something created by Devimon. As we walked into a small clearing, a most welcome sight appeared on one of the trees.  
"Look, bananas!"  
"Ba-na-na?"  
"Could you grab those for me?" Palmon used her vine fingers to grab a hold of the fruit and pulled them off the tree. She then brought them down into my hands.  
"I haven't had food that actually looks like food in a long time!" I cheered as pulled off one of them from the bunch. I began peeling the outside only for it to reveal that there was no banana but rather these things were merely just the skin. "What is this?!"  
"It's surprisingly good." Palmon took a bite of the 'skin'. I just couldn't take this whole place anymore!  
"This happens all the time! I hate it…"

My attention was quickly changed when I heard a plopping noise right next to me and saw on the ground a pink… oh no, please tell me that there isn't a Numemon above us. Both of us quickly screamed out in disgust before we looked up. Up on a branch was a yellow ice cream swirl with arms, though that ice cream resemblance was being very, very generous. He looked more like the thing he dropped. Hanging off of him was a small, ugly looking pink rat.  
"Hello!" They both introduced themselves.  
"Who are they?" I asked.  
"Sukamon and Chuumon. They're always together." Palmon answered.  
"Nice to meet'cha!" The two of them said.  
"Sukamon is an Adult-Level Digimon who's shaped like a sparkling, golden, well… you know… the attack that the Numemon use which he uses as well. He doesn't have any talents of his own, so the smaller Chuumon acts as his brains." As soon as she finished, Sukamon started throwing his disgusting attack at us, causing us to flee, all the while he was laughing at us.

Okay, no more running! I'm putting my foot down because this is getting ridiculous.  
"Hey, what are you doing?!" I demanded angrily.  
"If you don't like it, drop all of your bags." Sukamon answered.  
"All of them!" Chuumon added. Wait, they're like highwaymen?  
"Bags?" I questioned.  
"Are you trying to rob us?" Palmon asked.  
"You look like you have some nice stuff on you, so leave all of that! All of it!" "Leave it all!" They chimed. Well, there is no way in hell that I'm going to give up my father's survival kit after I 'borrowed' it, at least to the likes of them.  
"NO!" I shouted.  
"She said no?"  
"I'd rather dump it into the ocean than give it to you!" Chuumon began whispering something to Sukamon. "Is that wrong?"  
"Well, that's not wrong, but…" "But…" I closed my eyes for one second and when I opened them again, they threw even more of their filthy attack at us!

We kept running yet again, praying not to get hit by the disgusting pink attack. After a running for more than a dozen yards, I had enough.  
"No more…" I moaned as I leaned up against a tree. I turned around to see the two had slid down the tree and were currently holding on to my bag before they suddenly began to glow in a bright light. Wait? Are they evolving? The light died down and they still looked the same.  
"My heart somehow feels kinda refreshed~" "Very refreshed~" They declared. I crossed my arms.  
"Well, we're not _refreshed_ at all."  
"I feel like I've turned into a good poop!" Yep, that's what he looked like. He said it, not me! "A good one, a good one!" Chuumon cheered. Doubtful.  
"I wonder if that's the truth."

"Let me ask then, have you seen any humans around here?" Palmon asked.  
"Humans?" They both looked confused.  
"Something that looks like her." Palmon pointed to me. He looked confused again until Chuumon whispered something and then he looked really glad.  
"Oh, yeah!"  
"You saw them?" I happily inquired.  
"It was far away, so I can't be sure…" They both started blushing. Oh, no, not again. "But I saw something similar to you and a Tentomon fall in the Ancient Dino Region."  
"Really? If Tentomon was there, that must mean Koushiro-kun is there too!"  
"But have you really become good Digimon now?" Palmon was questioning the honesty to their claims.  
"Yeah, right!"  
"You don't deny it?"  
"At the very least, we feel like being good right now."  
"Then take us to the Ancient Dino Region."

We followed the two of them until we came across the edge of the broken island.  
"Over here!" They cried. "It's on the other side of the island. We can't go any farther." Chuumon informed. They were right; the deep ocean was separating the two chunks of the destroyed island.  
"Do we have to leap over to get there?" I asked.  
"It's really scary!" concerned Palmon.  
"Hey, are you happy we helped you?" Chuumon wondered.  
"Y-Yeah…" I mumbled.  
"Then… As thanks for helping, let's go out on a date! Let's go~" Sukamon said. Really? Why do I keep attracting these kinds of Digimon?  
"You must be kidding me!" I quickly looked at Palmon and we clearly were on the same wavelength as she extended her vines to a tree on the side. We were going to swing over there if only to get away from those two filthy Digimon.  
"Let's run! Grab on!" Palmon ordered. I grabbed on and held tight and we swung over the ocean and reached the other side. That was actually much easier than originally thought.  
"This happens all the time… I hate it…" I moaned in reference to the whole being hit on by some real ugly Digimon.  
"Let's meet again somewhere else!" Sukamon called out.  
"No way!" I yelled back. Me and Palmon then pulled down on eye and stuck our tongues out in an insulting gesture before we headed towards the last known location of Koushiro and Tentomon.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi_

As we walked into the ruins, the first thing I noticed was the main chamber room. On the wall were many of the same symbols of data that I saw in the battery back at the factory, most of the walls were beginning to crumble, and on the floor over to the corner was a very large black gear that was moving.  
"That's… Devimon's black gear!" I exclaimed.  
"You're right." Tentomon agreed.  
"If I can stop this, I'm sure the island will stop moving."  
"Even if that's the case, we aren't enough to stop this large thing. Let's leave it and go look for the others."  
"Tentomon, look. Do these symbols look familiar?"  
"I think so…"  
"That's because these are the same characters we saw back at the factory! The same one we met Andromon and where you first evolved into Kabuterimon."  
"Now, that you say that, you're right!"

"I imputed all of the data I found then on my computer, but… If I could just find a power source…"  
"You won't find something convenient like that here! Let's hurry and look for everyone!" I noticed the ceiling and saw the blue lights.  
"But the lights are on…" That must mean that there's some sort of connection. I then saw a tree branch with a familiar looking thing sticking out of it. "This looks like an electrical outlet. Could it be…" I pulled out my laptop's charger and place it into the socket. The computer then turned out. "All right!" That PowerBook hasn't failed me yet!  
"Are you serious?" He asked but I ignored him as I got to work immediately. If I could decipher these codes, then maybe we could get some answers on why we're here and how to defeat Devimon.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

As we got out of the jungle, we came across a large stone cliff with a building carved into the wall.  
"That must be where Koushiro-kun is! Maybe the others are there too!" I hoped.  
"Let's go!" Palmon insisted. We ran inside and sure enough sitting on the floor was Koushiro on his laptop with Tentomon right next to him. The both of them were next to a very large black gear.  
"There they are!" I said, getting at least Tentomon's attention as he turned towards us.  
"Mimi-han!" Tentomon exclaimed.  
"Tentomon! Koushiro-kun!"  
"Ah, Mimi-san." Koushiro seemed less excited to see us than say Tentomon.  
"I'm so glad to see you! Where are the others?"  
"I don't know."

"Then let's go look for them!"  
"No, this is imperative." What? Your laptop is more important than finding the others? "If I analyze these characters, I might be able to find out what's going on with this island!" Well, I can tell you that: Devimon controls the black gears and they're all over the island making it spread apart.  
"Who cares about that?"  
"I've been telling him that we should go look for everyone…" Tentomon informed.  
"Koushiro-kun!"  
"Look, you see that letter that looks like a 'G'? It's a key to something!" Koushiro pointed out, clearly ignoring every one of us. Okay, now he's really setting me off, almost as much as Sukamon and Chuumon did earlier.  
"So?" I gritted through my teeth.  
"I must decipher this right now." Oh, I give up, and it looks like the Digimon did too. There was just no way he was going to budge.

We sat down and just watched him type away at the computer for what felt like forever.  
"How long are you going to keep this up?" I asked him. No response. "Will something good happen if you find out what that is?"  
"Koushiro-han, Mimi-han is talking to you." Koushiro ignored Tentomon as well.  
"Hey, do we get to go home if you find out what that is?"  
"Well…" I heard him mutter. "Oh, I see! This goes over here!" That's it! Why did I have to run into Koushiro!? I would've preferred anyone else, Sora, Taichi, Jou, any of them, but no! I have to find the one who wants to just sit at his laptop and say nothing to anyone. I stood up.  
"K-Koushiro-han!" panicked Tentomon.  
"Are you listening? When are you going to be done!?" I demanded. I was going to lose it if he just kept ignoring me. He gasped.  
"This is… These ruins are a maze!"  
"Koushiro, you… idiot!" I screamed, and then I just began to cry. Less than a second later, Palmon did the same.

"P-Please don't cry!" Tentomon tried to calm us down. "Koushiro-han!"  
"Y-Your crying is only being a bother." He responded.  
"Koushiro-han, do something!"  
"Do what?"  
"I'm hungry! I'm thirsty! I want to see everyone again! I don't want to stay in here any longer!" I whined.  
"Me neither!" Palmon added before she ran up to Koushiro. "Why are you ignoring us, Koushiro?"  
"I'm not ignoring you."  
"Then why aren't you listening to us?"  
"What's important right now is to analyze this data. You might not understand now… But in the end, it'll prove to be useful to Mimi-san and…"  
"No more… I hate you, Koushiro-kun!" I ran away from him and went further into the ruins with Tentomon I think right behind me.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi_

"You're not doing this for Mimi! You just like working with machines more, don't you?!" Palmon accused.  
"No, that's not true!" I told her.  
"It's true, it has to be!" She started crying again. I noticed that Mimi just went pretty quiet and turned around to see that she and Tentomon were gone.  
"Huh? Where are Mimi-san and Tentomon?"  
"Eh? They're gone…" I got up and left my laptop on the floor as I followed Palmon outside the ruins. "They're not out here. Where did they go?" Palmon wondered.  
"It'll be bad if they're inside these ruins…"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I understood this recently from the data I analyzed… There's a maze inside these ruins. Once they go in, they can't come out." I feared as Palmon made a panicked moan. There really was only one answer, and unfortunately it meant that Mimi and Tentomon are now lost in the ruins.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

"Mimi-han!" Tentomon called out. I just kept running through this place until I tripped on a branch and fell flat on my face.  
"Ow…" I painfully groaned.  
"M-Mimi-han! Are you okay, Mimi-han?" What did I do to deserve this? I never hurt anyone before and I always tried to be a good person, so why did all of this crazy Digimon business happen to me!?  
"I hate this! I'm going home!"  
"This is a problem… If you wander around in here, you might get lost…"  
"I wanna go home… I'm going home!" I started running through the ruins once again.  
"Mimi-han! If you run off like that…"  
"No! I don't want to hear anymore arguing!"  
"Mimi-han, don't go off on your own!"

After running for a while, I just had to stop because I couldn't keep going. Walking around in this place, I soon noticed something familiar.  
"Hey…"  
"What is it?" Tentomon asked.  
"Didn't we pass by here earlier? I think I saw this scratch on the wall before. Is it my imagination?"  
"If that's true, doesn't that mean we're lost?"  
"Are you serious?!"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi_

We quickly ran back inside and I got back on my laptop in an effort to find Mimi and Tentomon who I knew for a fact must be inside. Palmon was insistent on going in after them but that was a terrible idea.  
"I'm going to go look for them!"  
"Wait! You'll just get lost too if you do that!"  
"Then what can we do for Mimi?"  
"Well… It looks like there are many traps set up inside this maze. Unless I finish this data analysis, we'll both get lost with them." I kept typing away for a few more minutes until… I think I've got it! "Finished…" There was a blinking red dot on the screen.  
"Is that dot Mimi?"  
"Probably. If we could be able to hear their voices, then maybe we can get them to hear us." I pulled out my ear set, then I clicked on the dot on the screen and soon we were able to hear them.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

As we kept rocking, I heard the rumbling of some loose rocks until a small one hit me in the head.  
"Ow…"  
"Are you okay, Mimi-han?" Physically? Yes. In terms of spirit? Terrible.  
"No! That, and all of this, is Koushiro-kun's fault! Really! The way he ignores people makes me so mad!"  
"Well, it's true that Koushiro-han lacks charm…" Well, that's a no brainer. "But he's not a bad boy."  
"But it's true that in his eyes, I'm out of consideration!"  
"When he gets caught up in something, he just doesn't notice anything else. I think he's really a good guy." Oh yeah, of course you'll defended him because he helps you evolve or something. "Mimi-han, wait up!"  
"Forget it! Leave me alone!"

" _Mimi-san, can you hear me? Mimi-san?"_ Wait, is that…  
"Koushiro-kun?"  
" _She can hear me. I'll navigate you, so please go in the directions I tell you."_ I guess he's on some sort of loudspeaker and can track us… well, I guess maybe all that stuff on his computer might pay off.  
" _Mimi, it's okay! It might not have ended up the way you expected… But Koushiro is doing everything he can to help you!"_ Palmon's voice reassured.  
"See? It's just like I said." Tentomon said.  
" _Please turn right from there. Then turn left at the next corner. But be careful when you get to the small room there, it has a pitfall."_ We followed his instructions but when we came across the said room, it looked completely normal. Another step and the whole floor began to crumble into a very deep chasm. While Tentomon could easily fly over, I had to hug the wall and sidestep around the pit but after a minute of that, we were safe on the other side as we continued on our way to get out.

"Where do we go next, Koushiro-kun?" No answer to that but they were still talking.  
" _This is…"  
" _What is it?"_ _I heard the two of them say. We came to a stop because we were at a fork in the paths.  
"I wonder what happened…" Tentomon said.  
" _What is this blinking dot? There's someone else besides Mimi-san and Tentomon inside that maze."_ Wait, what?  
" _But who?"  
" _Mimi-san, run! There's something close by! It might be a bad Digimon!"__ Koushiro's voice sounded like he was panicking so that must have meant that he was concerned about that other dot. Suddenly, we heard the sounds of loud foot steps behind us and turned around to see on the other side of the chasm was indeed someone else. The Digimon was like that of a mythical centaur with a man-like chest but connected to the body of a horse. His face was a metal T-shaped mask that had one glowing red eye in it.  
"Ah! Kentarumon! He's a proud Adult-Level Digimon who is half man, half-beast. He's got high pressure air spurting from his exhaust pipes on his back, he can move at the speed of sound! And his Hunting Cannon is something you don't want to be on the receiving end of!" Tentomon informed.  
"No way!"  
"Mimi-han, let's run!" We took off running with him following in close pursuit, and it was probably safe to assume that he had a black gear.

" _Turn left!"_ Koushiro ordered. Good, maybe we can be able to run to a place where we can take on the Centaur.  
"Koushiro-han! Where next?" Tentomon asked.  
" _Turn left again!"  
_ "This way, Mimi-han!" However, it looked like Koushiro may have given us the wrong direction because we just ran into a room with only one way out and it was the way we came in.  
"What is this?! It's a dead end!"  
"Koushiro-han, it's a dead end! What should we do?!" We heard no response before we heard the sounds of Kentarumon in the hall behind us. "He's here! Mimi-han, get down!" He pushed me to the ground as laser blast flew over our heads and crashed into the wall.  
"No way…"  
"Never mind that!" We ran out of the sightline of the hall only for Kentarumon to jump into the room and stare down at us. "It's all over…" Tentomon sighed in resignation.  
"Really? Are we done for?"  
"There's no place to run, and I can't evolve…"  
"Why?! Evolve right now!"  
"Well, even I want to evolve more than anything right now… But without Koushiro-han, I can't…" Oh, how could I forget that!

As the controlled Digimon stared us down, the floor began to shake.  
"An earthquake?" "Wh-What's this?" We both said. We turned around to see the wall beginning to crumble before it came crashing down to reveal the outside with Koushiro and Palmon!  
"Mimi!" Palmon exclaimed.  
"Mimi-san, over here!" He ordered.  
"Koushiro-kun!" I ran over to him but a cannon extended out of Kentarumon's hand and began charging.  
"Mimi, look out!" Palmon suddenly started to glow, signifying she was evolving. "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" She ran right up to the beast-man but he pushed her out of the way and aimed at me once again.  
"Mimi-san!" Koushiro ran in front of me.  
"Look out, Koushiro-han!" Tentomon did the same before he started glowing as well. "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" Unfortunately for the both of them, they were trying to fight Kentarumon in the cramped room. Both of whom had us two humans squeezed up against the wall.  
"Hey, consider where you are before you start evolving!" I advised.  
"I'm sorry." Kabuterimon apologized. A shot from the Hunting Cannon blew all of us out of the ruins, but that was a mistake on his part as now the Digimon had plenty of room to fight, much to my relief.  
"I finally got out…" I muttered mostly to myself.  
"Um, I don't think we should be feeling relieved just yet…" Koushiro reminded. Kentarumon walked out of the large hole but now with the proper room to fight, Kabuterimon and Togemon sprang into action. He fired another Hunting Cannon but the two Digimon were ready.  
"Mega Blaster!"  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" The attacks overwhelmed the cannon shot and crashed directly in the Centaur's chest, causing him to fall over and the black gear in his back to fly out and vaporize.  
"Kentarumon had a black gear!" confirmed Koushiro.

"How could this have happened?" Those were the first words we heard out of Kentarumon. We walked up to him check on him.  
"Are you back to normal?" I asked.  
"Th- That's…" His eye seamed fixated on the item latched onto my bag. He motioned us to follow him back into the ruins and after a few minutes we walked into a room where the same item was largely engraved on the wall. "This is the holy device, the Digivice. I'm here to protect its ruins." We both looked at the now named Digivices.  
"A holy device…" Koushiro muttered.  
"Digivice?" I questioned.  
"It guides this world towards light while driving away the darkness… The legendary holy device."  
"This is…" Koushiro kept muttering.  
"I don't really get it. But it's a good thing we have them, right?" I admitted. We heard a large footstep enter the room behind us before Kentarumon addressed the visitor.  
"Leomon." What?!

We turned around to see that in fact Leomon was at the doorway to the room and he had that blank look in his eyes again, meaning that he probably was under Devimon's control again.  
"Kill… the children… They are interfering with our plans."  
"Leomon, what's wrong with you?!" Kentarumon questioned. He got no answer as Leomon just jumped towards us. "Leomon!"  
"Juuouken!" He aimed at us and I covered my eyes, thinking that I was about to be struck dead by the attack. When I felt no pain, I opened my palms to see that Kentarumon was holding back Leomon.  
"Kentarumon!" Koushiro cried out.  
"These children hold the holy devices… After protecting these ruins for so long, it is now my duty to also protect these children!"  
"Then I will also kill you. Juuouken!" The Centaur Digimon quickly dodged the attack and got behind the possessed lion.  
"Hunting Cannon!" The attack caught Leomon off guard and he slammed against the chamber wall. However, he shook off the attack. "What?!"  
"Juuouken!" The attack hit Kentarumon in the face, caused him to crash into the wall, and he fell to his knees. "Next are the children. Kill them."

As he walked up towards us, I covered my eyes yet again, this time with my bag and fearfully cried. Everything went quiet as it seemed that Leomon wasn't doing anything.  
"I get it… this is it!" Koushiro said. What? This is what? "Mimi-san!" I looked over and he was holding his Digivice up towards Leomon. Oh, I get it now too. Holy Devices so that must mean that they're keeping Leomon at bay, like a cross to a vampire. I held up my bag and both Digivices began shining a bright yellow light. Leomon only roared in pain until he turned around and fled the ruins.  
"Did he run away? I guess that means we're saved!" I insisted.  
"Is this the power of the holy device?"  
"Who cares about that? I've gotten hungry."

We went back into the main entrance room where the black gear just continued spinning and Koushiro's stuff was still on the floor.  
"Kentarumon." He asked. "Can you stop this gear?"  
"No. This level of evil power is too great for me to stop."  
"I see…" He sat back down and went back to where we were earlier; standing around waiting for him to finally get done with that computer.  
"Even after I said I was hungry, he's still doing this…" I muttered aloud.  
"As I thought, I'll have to analyze this data with the data from these other characters. I'm sure I'll find a hint in here."  
"Geez! It'll take ten billion, ten thousand years waiting for that to be deciphered!"  
"But…" I walked over to the gear, still with food on my mind.  
"Really! This gear can't even fill my stomach!" I then gave it a swift kick. The gear suddenly stopped and began turning backwards.

We left the ruins to see what that had caused and as it turned out, the island was starting to go back the other way… right towards Infinity Mountain.  
"The island is moving backwards!" observed Koushiro.  
"Thank goodness!" Palmon sighed with relief.  
"I see. Just like you said, Mimi-san, there are many things I should try out physically!" Wait, when did I say that? Who cares, my stomach needs food!  
"I'm hungry!" I complained. I looked up across the water to the other island-, Oh, for crying out loud! Sukamon and Chuumon are waiting for us on the other island, though it's still heading further out.  
"We meet again!" They cried out.  
"Gah!" Me and Palmon said in disgust.  
"Let's go on a romantic date!" "Let's go!" The two of them were still on that.  
"What weirdos."  
"Nyah-Nyah!" Palmon and I gave them the same gesture again before laughing. We knew we were going to have to confront Devimon soon, but we were more than happy to have a slight respite before that happens.

You better watch out, Devimon. We've got some surprises for you…

* * *

And that was Chapter 11, next one shall be on the deadline of June 6th, the 74th Anniversary of Operation: Overlord, the D-Day landings and the invasion of Normandy.  
Edit: Apologies, it will be on the 7th, some issues came up that required my immediate attention.

That's really all I got to say this time, so, see ya later.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	13. The Dancing Ghosts! Bakemon!

Chapter 12, Folks! Sorry for pushing the date again, but I had a thing involving family I had to handle yesterday.

Nothing really new in terms of shout outs, so let's go ahead with the next chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 12: The Dancing Ghosts! Bakemon!**

 _Ocean. A-Day+5. Late Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido__

Why, oh, why is our luck so poor? After thinking we caught a lucky break in terms of the mansion, it turns out Ross was right about his Lucifer comment. Devimon had scattered all of us across the destroyed island, or at least I think so. The others could be dead for all I know. To make matters worse for me was that my bed had crashed into the ocean and was now being used as an impromptu raft. I spent the rest of the night sleeping as I had been running on fumes for most of yesterday. That was my fault for not getting any sleep before scaling Infinity Mountain. When I woke up, apparently it was morning but due to the storm clouds above and the fog, it really didn't feel like it.

"This is why I didn't want to come to camp…" I complained as I hung over the side of the bed, feeling somewhat sea sick. I looked over to Gomamon after hearing some strange sounds to see him rummaging and eating out of the emergency supply bag. I quickly crawled over to it and found the whole bag empty! "Did you eat all of it?!" I know we were down to half a meal's left but still! Gomamon nodded at the question. "This is why I didn't want to come to camp! I have to study for entrance exams next year to get into a prestigious middle school!"  
"There's no point in telling me that, since there's nothing I can do about it…" I picked him up and started shaking him rather violently.  
"Then who do I tell?! There's no one here but me and you, Gomamon!"  
"Well, that's true, but we should try floating here with a bit more hope in our hearts. That way we won't end up being seasick, I mean, bedsick and…" I shook again.  
"What do hope and seasickness have to do with each other?!" I suddenly felt sick again and quickly rushed over to the headboard where I vomited once again.  
"Are you okay?" concerned Gomamon.  
"No, I'm not."  
"Oh geez…" He started using his paw to rub my back in order to ease my sickness. "That's why I said to have more hope!"

We both then glanced over to the side where we saw a large wooden crate begin floating right towards us.  
"A box?" I muttered. "Maybe it has food! Like bottles of fresh water and sterilized food packages!" I excitedly guessed.  
"No way." I grabbed him yet again.  
"You just told me to have more hope right now!"  
"Calm down…" The box gently floated up until it touched the bed. Everything was quiet for a few seconds until the top of it exploded to reveal Ogremon! "Ogremon!"  
"Too bad I'm not food!" He taunted as swung his bone club in an attempt to bludgeon us with it. We both managed to hop over it. "I'll be the one to kill the Chosen Children!" Why do they keep calling us that?! He swung yet again and like before we jumped over it. We kept dodging the attack by either jumping over it or ducking under it. After a few more attempts, he finally realized that swinging from the side wasn't working and brought his club downward that destroyed the bed and threw us in the water. However, we were in Gomamon's element and he had a surprise waiting for the violent Digimon.  
"Marching Fishes!" The fishes began jumping out of the water and pelting Ogremon. It wasn't going to stop him, I knew that for a fact, but it might distract him long enough for us to make an escape to a nearby island I could just make out perhaps half a kilometer away.

"Wh-Wh-What are these things?!" Ogremon questioned. "H-Hey, stop it!" The swarm of fish continued to pelt him.  
"The thoroughly evil Digimon, Ogremon, is being defeated by the likes of fish!" I said in both of mix of worry as well insulting.  
"Ogremon grew up in the Great Canyon Mountains, so he should be weak against the smell of raw sea fish!"  
"Haouken!" He suddenly began punching the incoming fish in rapid succession until they stopped coming. Damn, I was really hoping they could distract him longer.  
"…Or so I thought, but I guess not." Gomamon apologized about his previous comment.  
"Great…" I moaned. Ogremon pointed right at me.  
"You're next!" He declared as he sung down to club me. I closed my eyes and screamed, not wanting to see my own death coming.

"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!" I opened my eyes to see that Ogremon had stopped in his tracks and began freaking out at the appearance of Ikkakumon. On land, he wouldn't have done that, but when in Ikkakumon's element, he was pretty outmatched.  
"Haouken!" Ogremon launched another wave of rapid punches but Ikkakumon just brushed him aside before counter-attacking.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" Ogremon braced himself from the attack and was knocked back into the crate. "Jou, climb on my back!" Time to make our escape. I climbed on and we headed towards the island.  
"You're not gettin' away!" Ogremon shouted. We turned and left him in our wake; all he could do is yell at us. "Where are you going?! Wait! Damn it! I can't follow 'cause I can't swim! Cowards!" That was the last thing I heard him say until he vanished into the fog.

The close call left me exhausted as I hung on to Ikkakumon's horn. I was still tired and I was hungry. If we didn't get to that island fast, we'll be in trouble.  
"I know it was the wrong idea to come to camp…" I complained again. Ikkakumon started to make some weird sounds and I noticed that he was looking out of it. Not to mention the fact that he was starting to sink. "Ikkakumon!"  
"I'm tired…"  
"I-I can see that… You must've used up all your energy in that battle. Come on! Just a bit further, I can see the island!" Sadly, he couldn't make it as he devolved back into Gomamon and tossed me into the ocean where I began sinking towards the black abyss…

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Late Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi__

After crashing into this area of the destroyed island as well as a quick search of our surroundings, me and Piyomon came to the conclusion to hunker down and sleep for the rest of the night before we head out and try to search for the others. At around breakfast, though hard to tell by the storm clouds overhead; we tried fishing in order to get some food but we were lacking bait in terms for the hook. Heck we were lacking a hook as well.  
"Piyo~ Piyo~ Piyo~!" Piyomon was hopping around like the excited bird she was. "Any luck?" She asked.  
"No, not anything yet. If this doesn't work, we're gonna have no choice but search for food around."  
"Oh, I'm starving." Don't worry, Piyomon. I'll figure out something.  
"I'm using a twig as bait, I really am not expecting much. It'd be great if some fish out there thought it was a worm. Hey, how'd things look in there?"  
"I can't see anything because of the fog. I think this maybe a larger piece of File Island though. Ahh! You caught something!" Really? Oh, yeah, I did! And it was a big one!  
"There _is_ a big fish that's stupid enough to think a twig is a worm!" I pulled hard on the line but the big thing was making it really hard.  
"I'll help!" Piyomon tugged on my waist in order to help pull the big thing in. When it finally surfaced, it turned out to be Jou and Gomamon!  
"Jou-senpai!" "Gomamon!"

We fished the two of them out of the ocean and laid Jou out on a bed of leaves while Gomamon recounted what had happened to the two of them.  
"So what happened?" I asked Gomamon.  
"Well… While we were drifting on the bed, Ogremon attacked us." That's not good; it's amazing the two of them survived after fighting that creep one-on-one. "We made our escape somehow, but shortly afterwards, I lost my strength… As we went below the waves, I woke up and tried to bring Jou back to the surface but I just didn't have the strength to get him above the waves before he'd drown. Thankfully, your lure landed next to us and I wrapped Jou in it and well… here we are."  
"Well, we're just glad you're okay. By the way, have you seen any of the others?" He shook his head in a negative way. "Darn, I was really hoping that maybe you saw where someone landed."  
"We landed in the ocean and it was foggy, there was no way we could see."  
"Hey, we found each other so maybe the others are nearby as well." Piyomon enthusiastically believed.

"Hey, can I ask a favor?" Gomamon asked.  
"What is it?" Piyomon responded.  
"It's about Jou."  
"Is there something wrong with him?" I inquired. Gomamon looked back towards the blue haired boy.  
"He's turning more timid by the second."  
"Well, he was never that strong of heart to begin with…" I reluctantly disclosed.  
"We don't know what'll happen from now on. If he stays like this; we can't have a proper adventure!" A proper adventure? None of us really wanted this in the first place.  
"So what should we do?" suggested Piyomon.  
"Make him our leader so he can gain confidence!" Hmm, that actually wouldn't be a bad idea, and it would only be for the time being until we find the others. Actually, in terms of leadership, it's hard to tell who really is in charge of our group. I know Taichi has usually been the one out in front these past few days, but then you got Ross reining him in, Yamato clearly capable of leadership in his own right, Jou in a sense of caution and him being the eldest of us... it's really hard to tell.

"Ugh…" Jou moaned as he started to wake up. The rest of us quickly turned our attention to him.  
"Jou!" Both Digimon said.  
"Jou-senpai!"  
"Gomamon… Sora-kun, Piyomon! Where's everybody else?" He questioned.  
"We don't know." Piyomon admitted.  
"We just got here ourselves." I informed him before explaining what had happened between our scattering by Devimon and eventually fishing him out of the ocean.  
"I see…" Jou mumbled.  
"That's why… you should be our leader, Jou-senpai!" He didn't take it that well. In fact, he gasped in shock as if he was told a loved one had died.  
"I agree!" Gomamon added.  
"Me too!" Piyomon chimed in.  
"W-W-W-Wait a minute!" He stuttered, shaking his hands in a sign that said 'no way'.  
"You're the only one who can do it!" That wasn't true, I was perfectly capable to lead if necessary but Gomamon suggested this would help his confidence, and who was I to let something as petty as being in charge get in the way of helping a friend. Especially in this environment we've stumbled upon.  
"That's right!" The Digimon nodded.

At first, Jou sighed as he closed his eyes before going in to deep thought. A moment later, his look turned into one more hardened and determined even with his eyes closed. He opened them and it was clear there was a fire burning in them proving that our plan was starting to work.  
"Fine then!" He resolved. He then got up and clenched both his fists. "I'll be the leader!" The moment he said that, we heard large bells beginning to chime. Jou's look turned to one of confusion. "Is that bell ringing to celebrate me becoming the leader?"  
"It can't be…" I shrugged.  
"The fog is lifting!" Piyomon claimed. The fog slowly began to recede and revealed a large cliff side above the jungle with a church sitting on top of it.  
"It's a church!" Gomamon observed. Huh, with how little they know about humanity, they know what a church is.  
"There might be humans there this time!" Jou guessed once again.  
"Y-You think so?" I asked. It's nice to keep our hopes up, but we really haven't been that lucky.  
"Let's go!" Piyomon cheered as she began to take off.  
"Wait!" She stopped. "Jou's our leader!" I turned to him. "Leader! What should we do?" The confidence left him once again.  
"W-W-Well, th-that is…" He stumbled over his words. "O-Okay everyone, l-let's go!"

Jou led the way as we walked up the jungle paths that lead to the church. Even if we don't find anyone there, it wouldn't be a bad place to take refuge there for the night as well as serve as a landmark in terms of the others trying to find us. After an hour of hiking, we were slowly reaching the end of our ropes.  
"Stop!" Jou ordered. We quickly observed the size of the island we were on and confirmed our suspicions from earlier. "Just like we thought, this place really was a part of File Island before it broke up." I nodded. "All right! Now we can finally meet humans besides us at that church!"  
"Do you still believe that?" He seemed to take offence to that comment.  
"Yes! They must be there this time!"  
"But you have no proof…" I sighed.  
" _I'm_ the leader!" He yelled.  
"Yes, but…"  
"Let's go!" He ran off to the church. Great… he's only been in charge for an hour and it's already gone straight to his head.  
"Why is he getting so worked up?"  
"He's turned into more of a leader!" Gomamon pointed out. I couldn't help but laugh.  
"Oh, really?"

We quickly caught back up with Jou and got closer to the church when we began to start hearing some weird noises. Was that music?  
"What's that?" Piyomon wondered.  
"Go take a look, Leader!" I told Jou. He froze up again before turning around.  
"Go look!" Piyomon cried.  
"Leader!" I reminded.  
"Want me to go?" Gomamon suggested.  
"Th-There's no need for you to do that! I'm the leader, so I'll do it!" He stormed off to check out the sounds. As soon as he was out of earshot, we all started chuckling. It was for his own good after all, he really did need a confidence boost. After a few moments, he came running back towards us before he slipped and fell, but then he quickly got back up with a surprised look on his face. "Th-There really are humans here! A lot of them!" Our jaws dropped.  
"No way!" I shouted. We followed Jou and peaked around the corner of the building to see there were lights strung from the church to nearby trees like it was a party. But more importantly, there were in fact a bunch of humans, holding hands and dancing in a circle, though they were all wearing these emotionless masks over their faces.

"What are they doing?" Gomamon asked.  
"It looks kinda of fun." Oh, Piyomon. Always so happy.  
"Anyone got any idea why they're dancing?" Jou muttered.  
"Is it a festival?" I wondered.  
"This is a carnival where we give offerings to Bakemon-sama." A voice said from behind us. Our blood went cold before we turned around and screamed. The voice was a man who looked to be some sort of priest with a gold X on a chain around his neck, similar to a cross. He too was wearing one of those masks. "My apologies. I didn't mean to scare you."  
"It's okay; we're just relived to find other humans here." I said.  
"Please, sir. We've been looking for food and shelter for some time now. Is there anything available to eat?" Jou asked.  
"But of course. Please follow me." I guess our luck was looking up. We followed him around the building to the front doors.

"Please come inside." He motioned.  
"S-Sure, thank you." Jou thanked. Inside the church was a bunch of pews, a shrine at the end of the room, and six more priests who looked like they were praying right now.  
"I'd like to ask something." Gomamon spoke up. The priest stopped before turning around.  
"Go on." He said.  
"You mentioned Bakemon-sama…"  
"Yes?"  
"The Bakemon I know is… A ghost Digimon who lives in the Overdell Graveyard." Great, they've got ghosts in this place? I really hope we don't run into them, I'm somewhat scared of ghosts. "I really don't think he's worthy enough to be given offerings and called with a '-sama' added to his name…" In Japanese, '-sama' is an add-on to indicate reverence and worship.  
"Me neither." Piyomon added. The priest really didn't like that and lowered himself right up to their faces.  
"God does not forgive those who speak rudely of Bakemon-sama!" Oh, great, we upset them.  
"I'm sorry!" Gomamon and Piyomon both apologized.

I looked back behind him and saw the table at the front was empty.  
"Where's your offering? I don't see it anywhere…" I questioned.  
"It's here." He replied. We all looked around trying to find it.  
"Where?" Jou asked.  
"Our offering to Bakemon-sama is…" Suddenly the mask began to crack before his whole body exploded revealing a white ghost with sharp teeth and black eyes with soul-piercing white pupils. "YOU!" We screamed.  
"It's Bakemon!" Piyomon cried.  
"So that means…" Gomamon put two and two together and as we all guessed, the priests turned around and exploded to reveal they were Bakemon as well! They started floating towards us and we turned and ran for the exit.

When we got outside, the lights and everything had changed into a graveyard with the people standing there waiting for us. We all came to the same conclusion.  
"Overdell Graveyard!" We all yelled. It was another trap and we fell for it yet again! The party folks all suddenly turned into more Bakemon and surrounded us. We turned back to the church and found it looking more rundown and abandoned; it was the same trick Devimon pulled on us last night.  
"Magical Fire!" Piyomon launched an attack that kept the Bakemon at bay for a moment while Gomamon charged right at the large group of them.  
"Gomamon, evolve!" He fell over in exhaustion, clearly unable to evolve.  
"Gomamon!" Jou cried out.  
"I can't evolve now because I used it up earlier!"  
"Piyomon, evolve!" She tried to do the same but with no food, it was almost impossible.  
"Piyomon!"  
"I'm so hungry I can't evolve!" As soon as the Bakemon realized they had us outmatched, they dived on us. The last thing I remembered was screaming as the Bakemon swarmed all over us before I fell unconscious from fear.

 _Overdell Graveyard, Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Afternoon._

When I finally came back to, I felt myself lying on a stone slab in the church and tied up. Sure enough, I was along with Jou who was right next to me. We were surrounded by the Bakemon who were bowing around us.  
"Are we going to be offered to Bakemon-sama?" Jou asked.  
"It looks that way…" I reluctantly guessed.  
"I _knew_ I should've stayed home studying instead of coming to camp!" Jou complained yet again.  
"There he goes again…" I said, mostly for myself. Two Bakemon came up too us holding some comically oversized salt and pepper shakers.  
"Salt." "Pepper." "Salt." "Pepper." The two said as they sprinkled us with the stuff. Eaten alive, huh? I'd rather wish to die as quick and as painlessly as possible but unless we can find a way out of this… well, we're dinner. Jou sneezed when he got covered in the pepper.  
"I-I think you should keep it light on the salt, don't you?" I suggested to the Bakemon.  
"That's true. They do say that eating too many salty things isn't good for your body."  
"I knew it!" Jou yelled. "Bakemon-sama is planning to eat us!" What was your first clue? I was more concerned on something else.  
"Just who is this Bakemon-sama?!" I demanded. I got no answer.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

When they were captured, the Bakemon had thrown Piyomon and Gomamon into a cell that was in the church's basement. Currently, the two of them were trying to find a way out to save their human friends.  
"These walls are too thick for us to break down." Gomamon observed.  
"But we have to get out somehow." Piyomon insisted. They looked outside the cell and saw a Bakemon that had been left to guard them was snoring real loud, so much that he had a mucus bubble coming out of his nonvisible nose.  
"Let's trick that Bakemon into getting us out! He looks stupid enough!"  
"How do you know he's easy to fool?"  
"Digimon who sleep with a mucus bubble coming out of their noses are easy to fool."  
"Is it really a good idea to judge based on that?"  
"Yup!"  
"So how do we do it?" Gomamon picked up a small pebble and tossed it through the cage bars and popped the bubble, startling the Bakemon awake.

"Bakemon!"  
"Are you talking to me?"  
"Yup, I am!"  
"What is it?"  
"Try and torture us!" The ghost Digimon looked confused.  
"What?"  
"We want to be tortured!" Piyomon said.  
"You two sure are weird Digimon."  
"We're hungry." Gomamon admitted. "So why don't you eat something in front of us to torture us?"  
"Huh?"  
"Could it be… this graveyard is so poor that you don't even have anything to eat?" He took offence to that.  
"Wh-What?! No, we have lots of food!"  
"Then torture us with it!" Piyomon suggested.  
"Okay."

He came back a moment later with a bunch of bananas in hand.  
"Look, doesn't it look tasty?" He was about to eat one before Gomamon cleared his throat.  
"I'm so hungry I can't see. Come closer." He did as he was told.  
"Like this?"  
"I'm so hungry I can't smell anything. Come closer." Piyomon lied. Their plan was working. Bakemon moved closer again, none the wiser.  
"Like this?" He was right up to the gate.  
"NOW!" Gomamon shouted as the two of them grabbed the ghost and slammed him against the bars. They then took a few more shots at him until he fell over unconscious. The two Digimon took the bananas off of him and ate them to get the energy required to take the fight back to the ghosts.  
"This is enough to bring back my energy!" Piyomon informed.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"M-My soul tastes bad!" Jou yelled out the next in a long string of excuses of why he shouldn't be eaten. Jou, they probably don't care at all. Wait a minute, his soul tastes bad?!  
"What? Are you saying mine tastes better?!"  
"Yeah, it probably tastes better than mine!"  
"Jou-senpai! And you call yourself a leader?!"  
"Let us begin to call forth Bakemon-sama!" One of the Bakemon announced. They soon floated over us and began spinning in a circle round and round until they all combined into one giant Bakemon with blue hands and sharp nails sticking out of the sheet. We screamed for what was probably going to be the last time.

Of course, something or someone has got to be watching out for us because before he could do anything, the floor exploded right behind us to reveal Ikkakumon! Birdramon then flew out of the hole and suddenly Bakemon was looking somewhat nervous.  
"Ikkakumon!" "Birdramon!" We called out to our respective Digimon. Birdramon used her talon to free the both of us and we cleared out fast to give the two Digimon room to wreck our tormentor. At least, that's what we thought until both of them were thrown out of the building by giant blue hands. Okay, now we're worried again.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" The missile went on course but Bakemon-sama grabbed it!  
"Hell's Hand!" He threw the projectile over his head.  
"Meteor Wing!" He shrugged off the fiery attack.  
"Bake!" He yelled.  
"Bakemon-sama is much stronger than I thought!" I told Jou as we both took cover behind two gravestones.  
"Well, he's a ghost!" That doesn't help; we're doomed unless we come up with something.

"Wait!" Jou shouted as he came to a realization. "To fight against ghosts, you need to chant a sutra praying for God's good grace!"  
"Chant a what?"  
"By chanting the sutra, Bakemon-sama's power will weaken!"  
"Can you do that?"  
"Yes!" He said angrily as if I doubted him.  
"Do you know any sutras?"  
"My grandmother from the country-side taught me one so I could pray to do better on exams."  
"Will that work against Bakemon-sama?" I wondered as the sounds of the fighting got even louder.  
"It's a sutra, so it's gotta work!"  
"What's with the sudden confidence? You're starting to scare me…" He ignored that comment and focused dead-on Bakemon-sama.

He closed his eyes and put his hands together to his face and began chanting. It was words I didn't understand, it wasn't another language, it sounded more like gibberish or is he saying things backwards?  
"The ritual drum!"  
"O-Okay!" I looked around for one but I didn't have one on me. My beanie wouldn't help because it wasn't a helmet. Thankfully, I found a wooden bucket nearby and a stick that could be used to bang on it. I gave them to Jou and he started banging on the bucket. I looked over to the fight and everything stopped. Bakemon-sama started looking off and then began to shrink! It was working! "Bakemon-sama's power really is getting weaker!"  
"Ikkakumon! Birdramon! Now!" Jou ordered.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" "Meteor Wing!" The attacks went out, the missile impaled itself into Bakemon-sama's chest while the Meteor Wing tore him to shreds until the Vulcan went off and blew him to ribbons of a burnt sheet.  
"We did it! We won!" Jou cheered.  
"I have no idea what just happened, but this is so cool!" I admitted though we just probably set a precedent. Bakemon-sama was not controlled by one of Devimon's black gears. He was an evil Digimon we didn't just defeat but rather destroyed. Still, I didn't feel too bad, the freak tried to eat us so good riddance!

As if on cue, the storm clouds began to break away and the sun began to come out. The ground started to rumble and a large crack tore through the cemetery. We looked down and saw the ground was filled with a dark sight.  
"Black gears!" I observed.  
"They stopped!" Jou said. The ground rumbled again and the gears shattered apart. We looked up and saw Infinity Mountain slowly getting closer. "It's Infinity Mountain!"  
"Everyone might be over there!" I advocated.  
"Then that's where we're gonna meet with the others and deal with Devimon." Jou declared. I nodded in agreement. We were going to stay on this island and get some food and a quick shuteye in order to be fully prepared to fight the devil Digimon. He wasn't going to catch us off guard this time.

Watch out, Devimon. We've got a score to settle…

* * *

And that's Chapter 12. I will greatly appreciate any comments about how I'm doing. It keeps me going.

Okay, so few thing. At a later episode, it's revealed that Sora is wearing not a helmet but a beanie so I had that slightly changed. I know I said in the prologue she was wearing a helmet but I forgot that part so I'm gonna do a one-word retcon. Next, I know the episode ends with them getting off the island and sail/fly to Infinity Mountain on Ikkakumon and Birdramon, but I had that changed in order for them to be more at full strength for the eventual showdown with Devimon.

Anyways, that's it. Next chapter deadline will be June 10th. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	14. Adventure! Patamon and I!

Here we are, Chapter 13. We are just one away from our first big showdown!

Nothing to really say this time, so let's just go!

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Adventure! Patamon and I!**

 _Infinity Mountain, File Island. A-Day+5. Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

Storm clouds were rumbling all around the Peak of Infinity Mountain. It was almost as if they were in conjunction with the ruler of the mountain and his mood. To say that Devimon was upset, would be an understatement. Leomon and Ogremon had returned after Leomon was chased off by the Ancient Dino Ruins and Ogremon was left adrift in a crate on the ocean.  
"You failures!" Devimon roared.  
"My apologies." Leomon said.  
"We almost had them…" Ogremon tried to give their excuse but was quickly cut off as Devimon grabbed him by the neck. "Wh-What are you doing, sir?!"  
"I don't want to hear your excuses!" threatened Devimon.  
"Forgive me, Devimon-sama!" The ogre choked out. "Please forgive me!" Devimon showed his mercy by dropping him to the ground. The rage-filled Digimon still had some use for him. "Thank you."

"You two still have some use for me. My main concern is the youngest one of the group. Right now, they're all slowly beginning to regroup and return to Infinity Mountain. I want you to go to the Village of Beginnings where two of the children are… and exterminate the youngest one."  
"But what of the other child, Devimon-sama?"  
"Feel free to destroy him as well, but the youngest one must die no matter what. Now go." The two Digimon nodded before going on their way to their target. "I didn't think it would end up like this… I was unable to put a stop to them before they evolved…But no matter. I only need to destroy the one Digimon who has yet to evolve. As long as I defeat one Chosen Child, my victory is ensured." All the while Devimon began laughing evilly once again.

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Past Midnight.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

I hate it when I'm right. I wasn't entirely serious about Jou's comment in terms of the angel picture on the mansion but then lo and behold, in walks the devil. Thanks to Taichi and whatever he did to Leomon, we were all spared a grizzly fate at the cold hands of Devimon. Now the problem was we were probably all scattered amongst the islands and had Devimon probably beginning to hunt us down. I liked this place better when it was our first day and the Digimon attacking us weren't malicious but rather just territorial. Currently, Guilmon and I crashed into a swamp and were trying to find a way out of it to a better location that I saw on the way down.

"Remind me again what it was you saw?" Guilmon asked me.  
"As I told you when we landed, I saw some strange buildings on the top of that ridge. It was next to forest and some large green fields, plus there was a river nearby that extends to a waterfall that leads into this swamp."  
"You've got good eyes."  
"I only need these glasses to strengthen my eyes, when I take them off, everything gets a little weaker."  
"Whatever, can we sleep?"  
"No, we've got to find the others and I'm not really comfortable sleeping in this swamp, especially at night."  
"Ross, I'm hungry and I'm tired. If I don't get some food or sleep, well, I'm not gonna be much help for you." I paused, trying to think of something to convince him to keep going. "Look, the others will be fine for the moment, but if we don't rest, we're not gonna be much help for any of them." I sighed. He's right; we wouldn't be much help if we could barely keep ourselves awake.  
"Fine." I reluctantly agreed. We soon found a clearing in the swamp that we could sleep through the rest of the night before we'd continue traversing the swamp in the morning.

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi__

I really owe a lot to Patamon. Ever since we've came to this place, he's been by my side trying to protect me from harm. He did that again during the night when our bed crashed into the rocks at the bottom of a waterfall. I wouldn't have made it if not for a last moment save from Patamon. We spent the rest of the night sleeping; we were just too tired and the sound of the waterfall was actually pretty soothing. At the first sign of light, I got up and put my clothes on that I was keeping in my backpack seeing how it was empty now that we had eaten all the candy.

"Thanks, Patamon. You saved me once again." I thanked him once more as I did during the night.  
"No need to thank me. We're friends." I finished getting ready by putting my hat on.  
"You're right." I quickly took a good look at the waterfall. At first, the waterfall didn't seem so bad when flying over it and at night when you can't see it well. However, in the light and when you're at the bottom of it, it suddenly becomes very imposing. So, with the fact we were separated from Yamato and the others, we had real no way of getting to them, and the fact that we now had a very scary Digimon wanting to hurt us out there… well, thinking of that all at once just made me start crying.  
"Wh-What's wrong, Takeru?!" Patamon asked.  
"W-We got separated from Onii-chan and the others!"  
"At a time like this…" I barely heard Patamon mutter over the sound of my crying. "If I were Piyomon…" I guess he was thinking that if he could evolve into something like Birdramon, he could easily fly over the waterfall. He then started to cry as well. It caught me off guard that I stopped my crying just to see what was wrong.

"What's wrong, Patamon?" I asked just he did a moment ago.  
"Because! Because!" He barely could say anything because of his crying. It really is hard to say anything when you're bawling. "I want to evolve and fly high in the sky too!"  
"Evolve?" I knew what he was referring to, but I didn't really think he'd care that much. "Hey, what kind of Digimon do you evolve into anyway?" That got him to stop crying.  
"What kind? I won't know until I evolve into it. Do you know, Takeru?" I wouldn't even know where to begin.  
"Well, maybe it would be like this 'mon." I ended up describing a pig to him. Well, he is a bat hamster thing so maybe?  
"No." He seemed confident on not evolving into that.  
"Well, then what about this 'mon." The next one I described was just a hippo.  
"NO WAY!" I guess he took some offence to being a hippo.  
"Then…"  
"Forget it! Stop thinking about it! It doesn't matter. I just won't evolve anymore!"

We quickly stopped talking as we heard a rustling in the nearby swamp. We remained still and quiet; fearful if there was something dangerous. Our fears were put to rest immediately when the culprits of the noise jumped out and revealed to be Ross and Guilmon!  
"Takeru-chan! Patamon!" Ross called out.  
"Thank goodness we found you!" Guilmon added.  
"Ross-san!" "Guilmon!" We yelled as we ran up to the two of them. "What happened?" I asked.  
"You tell me. One minute I thought I was sleeping in a mansion, next I find myself flying on a bed that crashes into the swamps. How about you?" informed Ross.  
"We landed here and slept for the rest of the night. Have you seen the others?"  
"Not since last night."

"We heard crying a minute ago and got worried that something was happening. Is everything alright?" concerned Guilmon.  
"We just had a lot on our mind and had to cry it out." Patamon explained.  
"I see… well, get it out now, Rogue Five, we've got a long road ahead of us." Ross said as he gave a wink that read 'Don't worry, I understand.' It is at least nice that somebody was with us, it made things just slightly less scary, but I'd rather have my brother with me above all else.  
"So what now?" Guilmon asked.  
"Well, we've found Takeru and Patamon, so I say we all get out of this swamp and head to those buildings I saw on the way down." Ross advised.  
"Buildings?" I questioned.  
"Yeah, if we're lucky, the others will see it too and we can regroup there. Of course, the only way up to the top of the ridge is to cut through some more swamps." He then walked past us and went back into the swamp before he turned around. "Well, come on! Let's go!" The three of us quickly followed along.

After walking through the swamp for much of the morning, thankfully without any trouble, we finally reached a path that got us on top of the ridge. Of course, it required a bit of climbing.  
"Give me your hand, Takeru-chan. Almost to the top." Ross held out his hand for me to grab, which I did and was soon over the top of the ridge. The path had led to us to a strange orchard; strange in the fact that there was nobody around to keep it in great condition, which it was.  
"Wow, look at all the apples!" Patamon explained.  
"Wait, do you think this is another trick?" Guilmon shared the same thought I had.  
"Doubt it; it would be much more elaborate in order for us to fall for it again." Ross theorized. All our stomachs growled at the same moment, indicating we were hungry for lunch.  
"I don't care if they're real or fake, I'm eating!" I declared. We settled down and began having lunch at the orchard. Patamon helped get apples off of the branches and the three of them got to eating. I, on the other hand, was just staring at them.  
"Can't eat them like normal?" Ross asked. I nodded. I usually ate apples when they were sliced. "Well, sorry, I don't have a knife to slice them for you."  
"I got it!" Guilmon walked up and used his claws to slice the apples into small slices.  
"Thanks, Guilmon." I thanked as I got to eating.

It was around noon-ish when felt that we ate plenty of apples before we headed back on our way. We were all pretty quiet as we kept walking. At this point, there was something I needed to ask Ross and get off my chest but he had his headphones on so I tugged at his jersey. He took them off and looked at me.  
"Ross-san?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I-I-I was crying earlier because I was scared of being separated from the others, and don't get mad but…"  
"You wished I was Yamato instead?" I nodded. He simply smiled. "Hey, look, I'm not mad, okay. I understand. Truth be told, I kinda wish you were Taichi, but this is how it is. You don't need to worry, I'm sure the others are fine and we'll find them, especially if we go to that location I saw. We're just like Airborne troops right now who scattered in the drop and are trying to regroup." I didn't fully understand his analogy but he was right about finding the others. We just had to hold on hope.

"Ross-san? Do you get scared?" He laughed.  
"Oh please, I'm terrified. But I try to keep a brave face because panicking isn't gonna help anyone." That really wasn't the answer I was expecting. "Takeru-chan, I want you to remember this, everyone is scared. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. We all have our fears, but we keep going because being scared of what you fear is no way to live."  
"I understand, but it's just, I really don't know…"  
"Tell you what, I follow you. You lead the way until we find Yamato, okay? Do you think you can handle that?" I nodded once again.  
"All right… then let's go to those buildings!" I said as I took the lead.

Another hour later, this time with me in the lead, we came across a train crossing in the middle of a wide and green field that was flashing and ringing, indicating there was a train coming. However, it wasn't connected to any tracks and there was no locomotion we could see. The lights soon stopped and the dividers that were meant to keep cars from crossing the tracks rose up.  
"Well, that was strange." Guilmon noticed.  
"Did we miss the train?" Ross asked.  
"I don't think so…" I replied. We stood still for another moment before Patamon spoke up.  
"So where do we go?"  
"Anywhere, though those buildings might be straight ahead." I said.  
"I'll follow you wherever you choose, Takeru."  
"That goes for all of us." Guilmon added.  
"Then… this way." I pointed ahead and soon we saw something coming up over the horizon.

Ross was right about the strange buildings because they weren't buildings but rather oversized baby blocks that had animals and other items on them. The whole area actually looked very calm and soothing.  
"It's so pretty!" I said.  
"Yeah." Patamon agreed. "Let's go look inside!"  
"Okay!" The two of us took off leaving Ross and Guilmon behind as we ran further into the strange place. As we ran the ground felt springy as if it was a giant trampoline and we began bouncing up and down laughing. After a few moments of this, we landed and then fell on our backs still laughing. "This feels like a big bed! It's so soft!"  
"It feels great!" We both looked over to each other gave a great big smile. This place was really cool and I was glad to share the experience with a friend like Patamon.  
"You two look like you're having fun." Ross said as him and Guilmon walked up towards us.  
"This is fun, right, Takeru?" Patamon asked.  
"Yeah." I answered.

"You were right about this place, Ross. It's strange which would make it a perfect place to attract the others… and yet… I don't why but this place seems familiar… like I've heard of this place." Guilmon trailed off.  
"Hey! There's something over there!" alerted Patamon.  
"Let's take a look." I said. We walked over to a small clearing in the blocks to find a bunch of stone cradles around.  
"They're cradles." I observed. We looked inside and a black blob-ish creature with yellow eyes. "What's this?"  
"A Botamon. It's a baby Digimon."  
"It's so cute!"  
"Cute little fella, ain't he? But wait, I though Gigimon and Tokomon were Baby Digimon? This one is too?" Ross asked Guilmon.  
"Yes, but they're a level below those forms." Guilmon responded.  
"So why aren't those forms just referred to as the Toddler-Level?"  
"Don't look at me, I didn't decide the naming."  
"Then who did?" Guilmon was about to say something before he just went quiet as he didn't know.

I poked Botamon with my finger and he felt really weird, fluffy and yet…  
"Feels like jelly." I compared.  
"Well, it was just born." Patamon excused.  
"What about the others?" We walked over to the next one and saw a red looking blob with three protrudes on its head. "Who's this?"  
"That's Punimon." Guilmon informed.  
"Let's go over here." The next one was covered in gray hair and had two dark grey antennas on its head. "This is a baby too? It looks like an old man with a beard!"  
"Don't say that, you'll hurt its feelings!" Patamon said. "It's still a respectable baby. Its name is Yruamon." When his name was said, he sneezed. It was adorable.

I soon noticed right nearby was dozen of these weird colorful oval shaped objects.  
"Hey, what are these?" I called out as I picked on of them up.  
"They're Digieggs!" Patamon answered.  
"Digieggs?"  
"A Digimon egg."  
"Oh, so Digimon are born from eggs? Like chickens?"  
"Yeah, that's right."  
"Even Devimon?" The mood darkened when I said that. Both Digimon looked down as if they felt some sort of shame.  
"Y-Yeah…" Patamon then noticed a letter on the ground. "Huh? What's this? 'Rub me.'"  
"Rub?"  
"But rub who?"  
"Who? Maybe the Digieggs." The egg began shaking in my arms. "See?"  
"Wanna try it?"  
"Sure. Rub rub rub." The egg began to crack. I continued to rub until a white blob popped out from the top. "It hatched! Alright!"  
"It's a Poyomon." Guilmon told us.

"What are you guys doing?" Ross asked as he caught up with the three of us.  
"We're hatching Digieggs!" I told him. "Hey, we need to find a crib for this one."  
"Maybe there's one over there…" Patamon began flying but Poyomon exploded in a light dust cloud and when it cleared, it was now in a crib that appeared out of thin air.  
"Wow! That's a neat trick." Ross said.  
"So that's how it works." Patamon responded in a sort of realization.  
"You two didn't know about this? But you're both Digimon." I asked.  
"I don't remember the time when I was a baby." Guilmon nodded in agreement with Patamon's claim. "Do you, Takeru? How about you, Ross?"

I remembered back to one of my earliest memories. It was back when my parents were still together so sometime before the late fall of 1995. I remember sitting on the floor, playing with my blocks while Yamato was playing on his harmonica. I then placed a block wrong and fell over and began crying. The music stopped once that had happened before I was picked up by Yamato. That's the earliest memory I can remember, but I don't know for a fact.  
"I'm not sure." I answered. "I probably don't fully remember."  
"See?" Patamon said. I looked back up and saw Ross with a down trotted look on his face. My guess is the earliest thing he probably could remember had something to do with his mom. I decided to get him out of that slump by distracting him. I walked up and tugged on his jersey again.  
"Hey, Ross-san? Let's go rub the Digieggs over there!" I pointed towards the egg field before running off.  
"No fair, wait for me!" Patamon cried out.

We soon began having problems after an hour of hatching Digieggs when many of the babies were not looking to well.  
"What now?" I wondered. "Are you hungry?" I don't really know where we'd find some food. One Yruamon made a familiar noise and I lifted it out of its crib to reveal it messed itself. "Ah… it pooped."  
"That's the one thing I don't look forward to if I ever become a parent, Takeru-chan." Ross informed me.  
"What do I do now?" I asked.  
"I don't know!" The others looked like they were having their own troubles as well.  
"Take care of it yourself!" Patamon suggested. I put the Yruamon down.  
"What should I do?!" I turned around to see the little baby crawling away. "Where are you going?!"

"You four!" We turned to see this red looking mammal creature with nine small tails that somewhat resembled a peacock while mixed with a furry lizard, especially with the purple fur on its belly. One thing that was sure about him was that he was mad.  
"Who's that?" Patamon asked. We never got an answer because he launched an electrical attack at us!  
"Sparkling Thunder!"  
"Look out, Takeru!" Patamon pushed me out of the way. Okay, I've got to stop freezing up and standing still when mean Digimon attack, first with Andromon and now this. Ross and Guilmon ran over to us and all three of them got in front of me to protect me.  
"What are you doing?" Guilmon demanded.  
"That's dangerous!" Patamon added.  
"Of course it is!" The red Digimon ran up near us. "I was aiming at you!"  
"Why'd you do that?!"

"Because you were coddling my babies!"  
"Your babies?" The four of us said at the same time.  
"Well, we did coddle them, but… What's wrong with that?" I asked. Patamon and I looked at each other in an innocent way; we didn't mean to cause any trouble if that's what he was thinking.  
"Tsk Tsk." He shook his claw at us. "Your lack of insight is so troublesome. Listen, the word 'coddle' not only means the usual definition of 'petting' someone, but also 'bullying' them as well!" I've never heard it referred to like that before.  
"But they both mean something completely different." I countered.  
"That's weird." expressed Patamon. "Anyways, we weren't bullying them. Just looking over them."  
"That's just it!" The Digimon said. "Let me tell you this, no one asked you to take care of them in the first place!"  
"You tell us off, but what are you to the babies anyway?"  
"What am I? Well, I'm their guardian, their housekeeper, their food provider, and..."  
"Ah, so you must be the caretaker of this place." Ross interrupted.  
"Well, I have to say, quite a noble undertaking for an Elecmon." Guilmon said.  
"What?!" Elecmon seemed more upset.  
"Well, your kind is known for being quite the mischievous pranksters, so yeah. Noble job."  
"Uh, Guilmon, he's mad enough as is, don't add fuel to the fire here." Ross tried to rein him in.

"Look, I look after these babies and that's that. Not you brats!" I thought for a moment that Ross would take the greatest offence to that comment. As it turned out, Patamon was the one who started getting riled up by that insult.  
"You're still a brat too!" Patamon yelled. Elecmon got even angrier than before.  
"Now, I'm mad!" And he wasn't before? Both Patamon and Elecmon jumped in the air and tackled each other, with Patamon winning only for Elecmon to bounce back up and grab Patamon while electrocuting him!  
"I'm going numb!" Patamon cried out before he broke away.  
"It's dangerous to touch me!" Elecmon taunted as the both bounced off the giant blocks.  
"Air Shot!" Elecmon dodged the attack and the two tackled each other once again.

"At the rate they're going, Patamon might evolve." Guilmon thought.  
"Patamon was crying earlier about not being able to do that…" I trailed off. Sure, we'd both like for Patamon to evolve, but not like this… not against a Digimon that's not evil like Devimon or under his control.  
"That's a good thing right?" Ross asked.  
"Maybe not. Elecmon is a Child-Level Digimon and he's not being controlled by a black gear nor is he malicious. If Patamon evolves… it might get really ugly fast." Guilmon feared.  
"Stop it…" I muttered. The two Digimon were really getting into it now. They were clawing and biting and scratching and it was only getting worse. "Stop it…" Now, it was starting to remind me of some bad memories. "I said stop. Stop…" I walked over to the two of them. "Stop… please… STOP!" I screamed. They did as they were told.

"Stop it, you two. Fighting is bad. You're scaring the babies too." The two fighting Digimon let go of each other and turned their backs on each other.  
"Sorry for scaring you." Patamon apologized to a Poyomon.  
"Don't go acting so familiar towards my babies, you brat!" Elecmon insulted once again.  
"Hey, did you guys know this? The ones who think they're grown-up are actually the biggest brats of all. Aren't they dumb?"  
"Is that insult related to me as well?" I heard Ross mutter to Guilmon.  
"What the heck?!" Elecmon properly responded to the insult directed to him. "If you've got a problem, say it to my face! You're the type who puts on a nice face but talks about others behind their backs, right?!"  
"Geez!" Patamon argued. "Please, Takeru, let me at him! I wanna settle things with this guy!" If I do that, then we'll be back where we started.  
"So do I! Bring it on!"  
"Do you really want to fight?" I asked.  
"Of course!" They both shouted.  
"Then do it fair and square… I got it! I have a good idea!"

 _Remains of File Island. A-Day+5. Afternoon._

The plan I had come up was letting the two of them fight it out not by the way of a fist fight but rather a game of tug of war. Ross and Guilmon help set it up, I played the role of a referee and Patamon and Elecmon were ready as well as willing.  
"To the East~, Elec of the Vast Sea! Elec of the Vast Sea!" I motioned to Elecmon. "To the West~, Pata of the Large Mountain! Pata of the Large Mountain!" I motioned to Patamon.  
"Go, Patamon!" "Show him what you're made of!" Both Ross and Guilmon called out from the other side with many of the baby Digimon, they served as the audience to this event.  
"Both sides… On your marks!" The two got into position. "Get ready… And start!" The two jumped past each other and grabbed an end of the rope with their mouths. Neither one of them were budging an inch. "Keep going! Keep going! Keep going!" At one point, Patamon began to lose his balance but then quickly recovered and began gaining a few centimeters. This was too much as Elecmon found himself tossed into the air and crashed into one of the block buildings, ripping it open and letting feathers fly all throughout the area. "Pata of the Mountain wins!"  
"Yay! I won!" Patamon cheered for his success. Ross and Guilmon were also cheering as well. Even Elecmon couldn't help but laugh at how silly and fun this had all been.

"Well? Wanna go again? We can keep doing it until you're satisfied."  
"Keh! Don't take pity on me! A loss is a loss. Welcome to the Village of Beginnings. You're warmly received here." The two then shook hands… paws… claws, I don't truly know.  
"Great idea there, Takeru-chan." Ross complimented me.  
"Certainly was a lot less painful then just fighting." added Guilmon.  
"I'm really sorry about everything, Patamon." Elecmon apologized. "Some weird stuff's been happening around here, y'know?" Oh yeah, we know it all too well. "And to top it off, the island breaks apart… I started being wary of outsiders. Well, I guess this goes to show I'm still too much of a brat!"  
"Fighting between friends is okay, because you'll make up soon. But fighting between adults…" And bad memories flood in once again. Elecmon put his arm around Patamon.  
"You're surprisingly stronger than you look!"  
"Then I look? I don't think I like being judged by the size of my appearance." Patamon said.  
"Heh, my bad. But it's really like you said. Er, what was it again? 'A grain of pepper may be tiny, but it's still sharp on the tongue,' or something like that."  
"'A pansy may be tiny, but it's still sharp on the tongue?'" Looks like they both confused each other. I think they meant 'A little body often harbors a great soul.' Heard that one from my brother. "Have you ever eaten pansies before?"  
"Huh? Did I screw that up? Oh whatever." We all shared a big laugh.

"You can rest as long as you want here! Though I guess you can't really do that since taking care of the babies is a full time job."  
"We appreciate the offer. We're lost from some friends of ours and the village is quite unusual in appearance that they could be drawn to it." Ross informed.  
"Yeah. By the way, do you know how to get back to that mountain?" I asked Elecmon.  
"M-Mountain? Y-You mean, Infinity Mountain?!"  
"Yeah."  
"Y-You want to climb that mountain? I really suggest you don't! Devimon is over there!"  
"I know. I have to go and ask him where my brother and the others are."  
"What? Takeru, I'm fairly certain that's what he wants you to do." Guilmon warned.  
"Indeed, he's not just gonna quietly tell you the answer. After all, he is an evil Digimon! If you really want to know, you'll have no choice but to defeat him." advised Elecmon.

"I don't want to fight!" I shouted.  
"But even if you don't…"  
"There should be another way. Some way we can settle things without fighting." Patamon said.  
"If there was…"  
"Think back on what you felt a moment ago." I reminded them. "We all laughed together, remember? I think something will happen… When our hearts become one."  
"Something…"  
"Will happen?" Patamon asked.  
"Maybe…?!" Elecmon began to run off.  
"Where are you going?"  
"I'll be away a bit in Gear Savannah! You went through the Pyocomon village there, right?" We nodded. "I'll tell them about what happened here! Maybe if we get our hearts to become one, the island will join back together again into one piece!"  
"And the island will be back to normal!"  
"It's just a feeling… But that's what I want to believe!" We all nodded in agreement with him. "See ya!"  
"Be careful!" "Tell the village Piyomon's friends say 'Hi'!" "Good luck!" I looked back towards the imposing mountain.  
"Onii-chan…" I muttered.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

This day has been a welcome distraction to the threat that is clearly looming over us. Takeru is good kid, but I fear for him. He's too innocent. If he honestly thinks that there's a way to defeat Devimon that doesn't rely on violence… I put him in charge because I felt that he needed to be brave, especially without Yamato around. Hell, I've been keeping the truth from him all day and sugar coating everything for him. The 'Only people who aren't scared' line; I was right about it referring to liars, but it also refers to the dead. There's also no way to know if the others are okay or even alive. And Devimon doesn't want to stop us but rather kill us. But I couldn't throw that all on a kid as young as him.

But still I have to admire him. His way to get Elecmon and Patamon to stop fighting was a stroke of genius. And that 'Hearts will become one' line… deep down, I feel he might be right. He reminds me a lot about Hikari. So, I'm willing to keep an eye on him until we find Yamato. And I'm willing to let him keep his innocent nature… for just a little longer… because I'm worried it's gonna come crashing down very soon.

Takeru was sitting near Patamon with a Botamon in his lap, just staring at the sun that was still a few hours away from setting. Guilmon and I sat not too far away, leaning against a block.  
"F-F-Feel…" The Botamon cried out.  
"What's wrong?" Takeru asked.  
"Feel itchy!" The Botamon suddenly exploded in a puff of smoke and when it cleared, a Koromon was now on Takeru's lap. "Nice to meet'cha."  
"Congratulations!" Patamon said.  
"Yay!" "Congrats!" "Good for you!" The other babies cheered. I noticed Patamon suddenly have a harden look on his face. Maybe he was thinking about evolving again as Takeru mentioned earlier.  
"What? What's wrong?" Takeru asked.  
"Oh, nothing…"  
"Do you want to evolve too?"  
"N-No, that's not it! I don't mind staying like this! I'll stay in this form forever, right by your side, Takeru."  
"Yeah! It's a promise. We'll be friends forever!"  
"Of course!" The two proceeded to have an arm/wing lock that just put a smile to all our faces.

One thing is for certain; we're approaching a final showdown with Devimon, one way or another. The question that I had on my mind was where the others were. Will we be able to find them before Devimon? And what was it going to take to defeat him, what would we have to give up in order for victory? Then the question was what happens after that?

If only we knew what the next few hours would bring…

* * *

And that was Chapter 13!

One thing I noticed when people do stories like this is they always have their OC go off on their own thing instead of linking up with Takeru. Still this his episode so I think I did a pretty decent job of mixing the two, but let me know on that.

Next chapter comes on the 13th, see you then.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	15. Angemon Awakens!

Chapter 14 folks! Sorry for being last minute but got into a bit of a Star Wars discussion on Deviantart.

Can't really say much again, so let's get to it.

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Angemon Awakens!**

 _Village of Beginnings, File Island. A-Day+5. Late Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

We decided to stay in the Village of Beginnings even after Elecmon would return. This was probably the best place to wait for the others, and Takeru and Patamon were really enjoying playing with the baby Digimon. As for me and Guilmon, we were just relaxing and watching Takeru and Patamon having fun. Although, I get the strange feeling on the back of my neck that something ominous is about to happen. Turns out, I was right, because the babies all began having worried and scared looks on their faces.

"What's wrong? Do you need to poop?" Takeru asked.  
"Guys! Look up!" Patamon shouted. We turned around and saw standing on the edge of the cliff was Leomon with his sword unsheathed! He began sliding down the cliffside with the intent to kill in his blank eyes.  
"Air Shot!" "Fireball!" Both attacks only stopped the lion for a moment, but then he proceeded to slide down once again.  
"Takeru! RUN!" I ordered and we all quickly fled into the nearby forest.

We took cover behind a few trees and could hear Leomon's footsteps, indicating that he had followed us into the woods.  
"He's here." Takeru whispered.  
"Leomon is normally a good Digimon." explained Patamon.  
"Yeah, well, with Devimon, that's not the case. If we could get the black gear that's in him out…" Guilmon said.  
"But how?" Takeru questioned.  
"Okay, here's the plan. Takeru, when I give the word, you and Patamon run as fast you can, get away from here. Guilmon, you evolve into Growmon at the same time and distract Leomon. Do you think you can take him?" I told them.  
"Do you want me to be fully honest?" Guilmon warned. Damn it. Leomon is just too powerful even if Growmon fights him. They'd both be the same fighting level, but Leomon has so many years of fighting experience, and that would be the decider in a one-on-one fight.

"Can you hear me, kids?!" Another voiced called out. Oh no! Fighting Leomon alone would be tough, but fighting Leomon and Ogremon? We're doomed. No, wait, I'm doomed. There's still a chance for Takeru to at least escape. Never thought I'd have to give up my life to save another, at least not before I could enter the service. "You're hiding somewhere like scaredy cats, aren't ya?" Ogremon taunted. "Come out quietly and show yourself! If you don't, this one here is gonna get it!" He held a Poyomon in his hands and was clearly hurting it. Of course he'd fight dirty. We heard the little baby begin to cry even more.  
"What do we do, guys?" Takeru asked.  
"Same as before." I said. "Run on my word."  
" _If we drive out the black gear inside Leomon, he'll fight Ogremon for us. But if we fail… Would I be able to protect Takeru all by myself if Growmon can't do it?"_ Patamon thought to himself. Our trains of thought were interrupted as the tree we took cover behind was sliced in half. Leomon had found us!  
"TAKERU, NOW!" I yelled. Everything became a blur. Patamon and Takeru took off fast while Guilmon began to glow.  
"Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!"

Growmon charged towards Leomon and tried to swipe him with his claws, but that experience of Leomon that I feared proved to be well founded. Leomon merely ducked under and used the opening to grab Growmon by the throat. He held him like that for a moment before slamming down on him hard to the ground, knocking Growmon out of the fight. With Growmon incapacitated, Leomon just stared at me. I tried to keep a brave front, but when staring down death, it's hard. Leomon then just turned his head toward the direction that Takeru had ran. I wasn't the target, Takeru was!  
"TAKERU! HE'S AFTER YOU!" I screamed. It was all for naught. Takeru tripped over a branch and Leomon caught up with him, ready to strike him down.  
"Kill the Chosen Children!" He repeated the same phrase. I had failed… Leomon lifted his sword over his head, ready to bring it down.

"Fox Fire!" A blue flame tore through an opening in the forest and forced Leomon to jump out of the way. Charging in from the attack's direction with a last second save came Yamato and Garurumon!  
"Takeru!" The older sibling called out.  
"Onii-chan!" The two of them ran over to the young child and Yamato hopped off of the wolf's back.  
"You okay?"  
"Yeah!"  
"How 'bout you, Ross?" He called out. I merely responded with a thumb up.  
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon attacked again. Leomon blocked it with his sword and the two Digimon tackled each other out of the forest.  
"Garurumon?" said a surprised Ogremon. I looked over and saw Taichi quietly sneaking up to him and pulling the Poyomon out of his arms. "He was close by?!" I could say the same for Taichi and Yamato. The tide had radically shifted back into our favor. "Huh? What the…?" Ogremon suddenly realized that he was missing his hostage.  
"I'm taking this guy back!" Taichi declared.  
"What? Ah, you…!"  
"Oh, I'm not your opponent. He is!" Ogremon turned his head and saw that Greymon was towering over him.  
"Mega Flame!" Ogremon had to jump back to avoid being roasted by the attack.  
"You singed my magnificent hair!" Oh, I hope they do more than that! "Just so you know, I'm pretty strong even when I fight fairly! Here I go!" He jumped up and clubbed Greymon on the head, but the skull he keeps on his head helped absorbed most of the attack. He used his large tail to knock the ogre away.

"Ha! Is that all you got?" Ogremon confidently bragged.  
"Maybe you should watch your surroundings better." Growmon announced as he rejoined the fray.  
"What? Two-on-one is no fair!"  
"Oh, and what you did before was?" Greymon countered. Both dinosaur Digimon began an offensive that was slowly pushing Ogremon back. For all his strength, when outnumbered, he wasn't as confident as when the odds were in his favor. At the same time, I ran up to Taichi.  
"Taichi!"  
"Ross!" We greeted each other by giving the _**Predator**_ handshake. "How you doing?"  
"Fine now, but could you not cut it as close next time?" The two of us chuckled at the joke before we redirected our attention back towards Ogremon. The fight between Leomon and Garurumon looked more like a stalemate while the fight with Ogremon was more in our favor.

Unfortunately, that changed quickly, as a large swarm of black gears flew overhead and embedded themselves in Leomon's back.  
"Wh-What the…?" Yamato said. The lion-man roared out in pain as he soon became more intimidating than he was before. He began growing even bigger than before, his brownish fur was becoming darker, and his blonde hair was turning a very ominous looking purple. Leomon then sheathed his sword; clearly he didn't need it no more. "This is bad! Run, Garurumon!"  
"Juuouken!" The attack crashed into the wolf and sent him flying before slamming him into the cliff wall.  
"Garurumon!" Yamato cried out for his friend. Just like Growmon earlier, Garurumon was out of the fight.  
"Juuouken!" He did the same to both Greymon and Growmon leading to the same result. In less that thirty seconds, the fight shifted right back into Devimon's favor. We ran over to our two injured Digimon.  
"Greymon!" "Growmon!"  
"Wh-Whoa…" Even Ogremon was amazed at the sheer power Leomon possessed. Leomon turned his attention back towards Takeru once again.  
"The smallest child… Kill him!" Leomon growled. That must have been what Devimon must have communicated to him, either before the fight, or telepathically a moment ago.

"Takeru!" Yamato shouted.  
"Onii-chan!" Leomon was walking over to the young kid and his Digimon and there was nothing we could do again!  
"Idiot! Run away!" Well, I wouldn't call him and idiot, Yamato, but the running away I agree with.  
"Air Shot! Air Shot! Air Shot!" Patamon tried desperately to hold off Leomon, but he never stood a chance. Leomon just grabbed him and slowly began crushing him in the palm of his hand.  
"Patamon!" Takeru cried out.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" And once again, reinforcements arrive in the nick of time as Togemon fell from the sky and body slammed the large lion. The impact forced Leomon to release Patamon.  
"Togemon!" Yamato said with a mix of relief as well as surprise. After all, Togemon just fell from the sky! Takeru ran up to the bat hamster Digimon in worry.  
"Patamon! You okay?" He asked.  
"Takeru… I have to protect you…" He repeated the same words that Koromon said to Taichi the first day we got here. He then closed his eyes to quickly rest himself.  
"Patamon! Hang in there, Patamon!"

"Taichi-san! Ross-san!" We looked up to see that was Koushiro calling us out. Both he and Mimi were riding on Kabuterimon which explained how Togemon attacked from above.  
"Is that you, Koushiro?!" Taichi called out. The landed right near us like a helicopter, plus Kabuterimon's buzzing wings gave off the sound similar like that of a chopper. They hopped off and showed off the strange items we had gotten at the start of this whole adventure.  
"Use the powers of the holy device, the Digivice!" What?  
"The holy device?" I ask. I quickly flashed my cross necklace.  
"No, these things!" Mimi informed.  
"These devices have the power to eliminate the darkness!" Koushiro explained.  
"Come to think of it…" Taichi seemed to have an epiphany. "Okay, in that case…!" He then took off running towards Leomon!  
"Wait, Taichi!" I tried to stop him but he didn't listen.

"Leomon!" Taichi drew the lion's attention from the Ishida/Takaishi brothers. He slowly began walking closer to the possessed Digimon. "You're after us, right? Try and catch me!" I swear, is trying to drive me crazy by trying to get himself killed?!  
"Taichi! What are you doing?" Yamato asked what we were all thinking.  
"Chosen Children… Kill them!"  
"NOW!" Taichi held up the Digivice and a bright light shined from it and Leomon roared out in pain once more. Suddenly, any questions I had related to last night were answered. That's why these things are called holy devices, because they destroyed the darkness and keep evil at bay, like a vampire to a church. To prove that point of banishing darkness, the black gears began to fly out of Leomon and disintegrate.  
"I get it. So that's it!" Yamato came to the same conclusion and ran up to join Taichi in using the Digivices.  
"I… I…" Leomon muttered out.  
"N-Not good! Those little brats…" Ogremon knew the tables turned on him once more.  
"Your opponent is over here!" Koushiro called out and Kabuterimon went to work.  
"Mega Blaster!" The attack hit Ogremon in the chest and sent him flying back into the woods. At the same time, the last of the black gears were exorcised out of Leomon and destroyed.  
"All right!" Taichi cheered. Leomon reverted back to his normal self and fell to his knees.  
"The holy power won!" Koushiro declared.  
"Patamon! Everything's okay now!" Takeru assured the small Digimon.  
"You've gotta be kidding me! I can't fight alone against all of them!" I heard Ogremon shout at himself in the distance before I saw him beat a hasty retreat. There was no need to peruse him now; we'd deal with him sooner or later.

 _Village of Beginnings, File Island. A-Day+5. Late Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

After the fight, we took the time to quickly catch up with each other and check to see how we were doing. Ross was curious on how he and Takeru were found and we explained that Yamato and I saw the village from a distance and decided to check it out. When we heard the sounds of fighting, we jumped into action. Koushiro and Mimi informed that they saw the fighting from up in the air. Not soon after that, Leomon told us that he had something important to say. Still, although the immediate danger was now gone, we were still missing Sora and Jou. I hope they're okay and are on the way to rejoin us. We all gathered near a large tree to listen to what Leomon had to say.

"Once upon a time, a rumor had begun to spread. It said that our world would be consumed with evil, and Chosen Children from another world will arrive to save it. The island is now indeed being overrun by the powers of darkness. That's when you appeared."  
"So that's why you call us the Chosen Children." I said.  
"But you have no proof." Yamato countered.  
"Yeah, how can you be so sure we're these Children that you've heard about?" chimed in Ross.  
"The Chosen Children are said to have the power to enable Digimon to evolve, just like you guys." Leomon explained his reasoning, and well, he's got us there.  
"If that's true…" Koushiro spoke up. "Then if we destroy the darkness, we'll end up being unnecessary in this world."  
"What do you mean, Koushiro-kun?" Mimi asked.  
"In other words, we might be able to return to our own world." All our eyes widened upon hearing those words.  
"Really?!" If that was true, then we could finally put this whole Digimon business behind us and go back to our normal lives. We could see our families again, sleep in our own beds, and not worried about being attacked, at least by Digimon.

"But to do that…" pointed out Yamato. He quickly looked back towards Infinity Mountain. We all shared the same thought.  
"You must destroy Devimon, who is the source of that evil power." Leomon told us. Hearing that, I stood up.  
"Let's do it, guys! We can't survive here unless we beat him!" I cut straight to the point. Koushiro got up after that.  
"You're right. Besides, we have the power of the holy devices!" Koushiro confidently said. Mimi soon joined in.  
"I'll work hard! I'm scared… but I want to go home!" Mimi informed.  
"We'll help you, Mimi!" Palmon assured.  
"We've recovered our stamina too." added Tentomon.  
"I'm ready to fight any time you are!" Agumon cried.  
"It seems like we're the only ones who can do this, so I say we fight!" declared Ross.  
"I'm not one to back down from one, either!" Guilmon cheered.  
"Let's go to Infinity Mountain, Yamato!" Gabumon tried to coax Yamato.  
"Yeah. We have no other choice." Yamato reluctantly agreed.  
"I will also assist you." Leomon acknowledged.  
"Great! It's decided then!" I declared.

We spent the next hour getting ready for the fight with Devimon. We all had ourselves dinner in order for the Digimon to properly fight; Devimon wasn't catching us on an empty stomach again. The time we took was also to give time for hopefully Sora and Jou to rejoin us before the final fight but when an hour passed and there was still no sign of them, we moved on. God, I hope they're okay, and I hope that they'll be able to join us before this is all over.

We hopped on a small boat that Leomon was rowing on our way to the base of the mountain. Everyone was completely quiet. We all were keeping to our thoughts. I saw Ross was quietly praying and decided to join in. After last night especially, it couldn't have hurt. When we got ashore, we began our long scale up the mountain with Leomon at the lead. One way or another, this all ends tonight!

 _Infinity Mountain, File Island. A-Day+5. Evening.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

Devimon was infuriated at the moment. How things had switched on him in such short time in was hard to believe. Last night, he had the Chosen Children right where he wanted them but Leomon just had to be released from his control at the worst possible moment. Now they did it again, and this time they knew how to do it. Now they were on their way to destroy him.  
"It appears I'll have to fight them myself now… Before 'he' appears." Devimon was clearly worried about something.  
"P-Please give me another chance!" Ogremon begged for redemption in Devimon's eyes.  
"Yes, I'll let you fight… As a part of me." Ogremon was confused for only a second. "Death Claw!" He grabbed Ogremon before he turned him into a bunch of black gears. "Come to me, oh powers of darkness! I'll turn this File Island into your graves, Chosen Children!"

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

After realizing that it would be past dark by the time our island would reconnect with the rest of File Island, Sora and I decided we'd have to travel on Birdramon and Ikkakumon to get there faster. We were at full strength to deal with any problems that might come our way, so we were somewhat confident. As we were getting closer to Infinity Mountain, we began seeing a swarm of black gears all flying back towards the mountain.  
"What's that?" Sora called out.  
"The powers of evil are gathering." Birdramon answered. How she knew… that must be a sixth sense Digimon have I guess.  
"What?" I cried.  
"The fight must be starting already." Ikkakumon deduced. The others must have regrouped with each other and are now about to fight Devimon.  
"Let's hurry!" ordered Sora.  
"Yeah!" I agreed as we moved even faster to join the others.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We saw the black gears approach the Peak of Infinity Mountain where Devimon had put his fortress before the sky suddenly darkened. That soon followed with the entire ground beginning to shake as we all became worried about what was happening.  
"Wh-What's that?" I questioned. Our answer came in the horrifying reveal of Devimon as he exploded out of the top of the mountain, clearly much bigger than he was yesterday. Mimi suddenly screamed at the sight.  
"Wh-What's that?!" She repeated the same thing I said.  
"Is that Devimon?"  
"Why is he so big?" wondered Palmon.  
"Could it be an illusion like the one he made last night?" Koushiro asked.  
"I don't think that's illusion." worried Ross.  
"You're right." Leomon confirmed. "He's grown larger using the powers of evil." Even Leomon looked concerned, that's not good for us.

We watched as he leapt off the peak and down to the forest below us.  
"He's coming!" I observed. When he landed, the ground shook again from the impact. "Evolve, Agumon!" I ordered.  
"Okay!" Agumon said. Devimon quickly turned around and his wings threw a large gust of wind that sent us all slamming into the mountain side. He then used some sort of black light that he shot from his hand on us that felt like a giant gravity well that kept us pinned. We were sitting ducks. Leomon was the only one who wasn't in the gravity field as he unsheathed his sword.  
"Devimon!" He roared before he was hit by the gravity field now that Devimon was using two hands.  
"Fools! You are all destined to die here!" The field began to get even heavier.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" We heard Ikkakumon's signature attack cry out over the battlefield. Six missiles crashed into Devimon's face and he was forced to give up the gravity field. Jou arrived just in time.  
"You did it, Ikkakumon!" I heard Jou praised.  
"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon launched her own attack and also struck Devimon.  
"You guys!" Sora cried out as she ran up to us. "Evolve now while you still can!"  
"Agumon!"  
"Got it!"  
"Let's go, everyone!" I commanded. All the Digimon nodded.

"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!"  
"Go, Greymon!"  
"Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!"  
"I'm counting on you, Garurumon!"  
"Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!"  
"Take him down, Growmon!"  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!"  
"Please, Kabuterimon!"  
"Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!"  
"You can do it, Togemon!"

With all of our Digimon fully evolved, we launched our counter attack; surly just because he was bigger, we could still defeat Devimon. We have too much riding on it.  
"Mega Flame!" "Fox Fire!" The attacks hit and Garurumon landed on Devimon's arm and started biting down.  
"Did they get him?" I asked. Devimon simply threw Garurumon off and sent him crashing into Greymon.  
"Greymon!" "Garurumon!"  
"You think these attacks will work on me?" The devil Digimon taunted.  
"Exhaust Flame!" "Mega Blaster!" "Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" The three launched their attacks but were knocked off the cliff side.  
"It's useless!"  
"No, Togemon!" "Growmon!" "Kabuterimon!" Leomon jumped in tried to stab Devimon while his back was turned but ran into a nasty surprise when the demon's back split open and Ogremon came out!  
"Not so fast, Leomon!"  
"What?" Ogremon clubbed the lion in the head with his bone club and sent him straight to the ground.  
"You thought his back would be a weak point? Well, I won' let'cha near him! I've become one with Devimon-sama! There's no way I can lose to you now! Haouken!" The attack launched Leomon into the forest before Ogremon vanished into Devimon once again.

We were in trouble. Devimon although outnumbered, clearly had us outgunned. He currently had Birdramon in his grip and was crushing her.  
"Birdramon!" Sora cried out.  
"Struggling is futile!" Devimon then threw Birdramon down to the forest floor where she crashed into Greymon. He then tried to reach out for Ikkakumon.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" The walrus tried to defend himself but the devil merely picked him up.  
"Ikkakumon!" shouted Jou.  
"Mega Blas-!" Kabuterimon's attack was stopped when Ikkakumon was thrown into him.  
"Kabuterimon!" worried Koushiro.

"No way! No one can compete with him!" Takeru said what we all were thinking. Sadly, it seemed like that drew attention towards him.  
"The smallest Chosen Child. As long as you are gone, I have nothing else to fear! Death Claw!" Devimon reached out in order to snuff the life out of little Takeru, but there was no way that Yamato was going to let that happen.  
"Run, Takeru!" Yamato ran to his younger brother while Garurumon knocked away Devimon's hand. All the other Digimon did the same to try and stop Devimon. Growmon and Greymon were holding his legs, Garurumon and Kabuterimon on his arms, Togemon and Ikkakumon held him above the knees and Birdramon was clawing him in the face.  
"You… worthless maggots!" Devimon launched a field of black energy that threw all the Digimon away from him and threw us to the ground.

"Grey…mon…" I muttered.  
"Sorry, Taichi…" I heard Greymon moaned.  
"I wanted to send you back to your world, but…" Togemon apologized.  
"My power…" claimed Kabuterimon.  
"Damn it…!" Ikkakumon cursed.  
"You guys…" I tried to assure them, but I don't think they heard me. They tried so hard for us, but, in the end… we couldn't even come close to beating Devimon. With no more immediate threats, Devimon turned his attention back towards Takeru and Patamon.  
"Ta… Takeru!" Yamato tried to call out to young kid. Devimon reached out again and Patamon flew up in a last desperate defense.  
"Air Shot! Air Shot! Air Shot!" It didn't even faze him. _"It's no use. There's no way my attack can work! Why am I the only one? Why can't I evolve?!"_ Tears were filling Patamon's eyes.  
"Patamon!" cried out Takeru with a sheer look of terror on his face.  
"Takeru!" Yamato screamed.  
"TAKERU!" Patamon flew in the path of the approaching hand and was crushed into the palm of Devimon's hand.

Once again, someone's got to be looking out for us, because when all hope seemed lost, Devimon's hand began to glow. That could really only mean one thing. Patamon was finally evolving! The light was shocking to Devimon who released his palm to reveal a glowing ball of light.  
"What's that?" Mimi asked.  
"That's…" Koushiro was dumbfounded.  
"The light of evolution!" Sora answered. The light began to fly higher in the sky and was almost blinding.  
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" Angemon!? Patamon was no longer a cute bat/hamster hybrid but now a blasted angel! Angemon had six pure white wings, a large staff in his hands, a helmet that covered the top of his face and long flowing red hair.

"Patamon evolved…!" Jou was speechless.  
"Angemon…" chimed in Sora.  
"Is that… Takeru's Digimon?" Yamato questioned.  
"He looks like an angel…" Mimi observed.  
"Talk about 'divine intervention'." Ross admitted.  
"Patamon evolved!" Takeru said.  
"Damn you…I was so close!" Devimon cursed.  
"I will obliterate your powers of evil." Angemon threatened. "Come to me, oh holy powers!" All our Digivices shot out a beam of light that converged on Angemon.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" Devimon was actually worried. All of our Digimon clearly were somehow giving their power as they all devolved to the Child-Levels. "Stop!" Devimon ordered in vain. "If you do that, you won't get off that easily either!"  
"But there's no other way." Wait, what they referring to? What does he mean by 'no other way'? "Even if this ends up destroying my body…" Wait, is he planning… No, he can't!  
"Angemon!" Takeru cried out. Oh, no. Tell me he hasn't figured it out.  
"Devimon. Your evil power has grown far too much. You must be erased from this world!"  
"I won't let'cha!" Ogremon launched from Devimon's chest but crashed head on to Angemon's glowing staff and was knocked away. "'Scuse me!" Apparently, Ogremon was banished out of Devimon.  
"Oh no…!" Devimon panicked. The staff Angemon held began to shrink into Angemon's right hand which began to burn with holy energy. He winded up his fist, ready to strike.  
"Angemon!" Takeru cried out again. Angemon merely turned his head back towards the young child.  
"I'm sorry, Takeru." He reluctantly apologized. The tears began filling Takeru's eyes as I think he finally realized what Angemon was planning on doing. The poor kid… I don't know what I could say.

"I'll crush you to death!" Devimon was now the one in the position of a desperate defense. He tried to grab his hands around Angemon but he was too slow.  
"Heaven's Knuckle!" Angemon cried out his attack and launched a bright beam of energy that ripped through Devimon's chest. The whole area was soon engulfed in a bright light and we could barely see anything. After a second, I could make out at Devimon was beginning to disintegrate in a purple colored energy that started at his feet and worked upward. It was clear that he was now dying, but the same could be said for Angemon who had the same thing happening to him, though for him it was white colored energy.  
"Fool! That was foolish of you, Angemon!" Clearly, Devimon wasn't going out quietly. "What was the point in exhausting all of your energy here? The powers of darkness aren't spreading in File Island alone. Across the sea… There are more Digimon who have far greater powers of evil than I do! You haven't won anything!" He laughed at his final moment before he was all but exterminated.  
"Angemon…" Takeru tearfully said. Angemon turned back to look at Takeru with a kind smile on his face.  
"Takeru. I'm sure we'll meet again. As long as you wish for it." Those were his last words before he vanished as well.  
"ANGEMON!" Takeru devastatingly screamed.

 _Infinity Mountain. A-Day+5. Sunset.  
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

The darkness that filled the sky began to vanish to reveal the sunset. We did it. We won. But it was a bittersweet victory. My fears came to pass. I wondered what we had to sacrifice to achieve victory against Devimon and well, Patamon's gone. And that innocence of Takeru, it was bound to happen, him losing it, but you hate to be a witness to it. We all got up and began converging on the heartbroken kid in order to console and comfort him. But, something amazing happened. The angel feathers that Angemon left behind floated into a pile in front of Takeru. The pile soon began to glow and shifted until the light died down to reveal an orange and white striped Digiegg! So maybe, Patamon wasn't fully gone after all!

"It's a Digiegg." Tentomon explained to those of us who were unfamiliar with it.  
"Is it… Angemon's?" Takeru asked with a sudden hint of hope in his voice.  
"Angemon is starting over again as an egg." Gabumon assured. So he wasn't gone forever, thank you again Lord.  
"That's right. As long as he evolves properly, you'll meet him again!" consoled Palmon. Takeru picked up the egg and embraced it in a hug.  
"I'll take good care of you."  
"Look!" Sora grabbed our attention. "The islands are coming back."  
"The powers of evil that had devastated this island are gone!" Koushiro announced. I heard some shouting that sounded like Ogremon from down in the forest so I assume Ogremon was running away from Leomon or something.

"So what now?" I questioned. "Shouldn't we go home or something?"  
"Yeah, you're right. But… didn't Devimon say that there are more powerful evil Digimon over the ocean, didn't he?" Yamato remembered Devimon's last words.  
"And I thought we could go back to our own world…" Jou groaned.  
"Do we still have to fight?" inquired Mimi. "I don't want to!"  
"But we have to do it! No matter who our enemy is." Taichi reminded. We were interrupted by the sound of some rocks tumbling right near us. We noticed by our feet was this strange looking device that revealed itself from the ground.  
"What's that?" Jou asked. Apparently it was some kind of projector because a light shined from it and soon a very old looking man with a large mustache and a pony tail on his almost bald head appeared before us.  
"Well, well. You must be the Chosen Children." He said.

What he would say next, well, we were going to have to put our homeward journey on hold for a while…

* * *

And that was Chapter 14. Hope you all enjoyed what was one of the hardest things to write at the moment. Hard because I really didn't want to write Angemon's sacrifice. Takeru and Patamon were second on my list of favorite Chosen Children/Digimon duo. Heck, I was actually planning to write the sacrifice from Takeru's POV but I didn't really know how to do the tearful emotions related to the scene. I'll get it eventually but not right now.

Anyways, next chapter will be at the latest on the 17th. Tomorrow, I'm going to the movies to see RiffTrax Live!: Space Mutiny! "We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese!"

Until then take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	16. Set Sail! - To a New Continent!

Chapter 15!

Sorry I took so long, got distracted. Happy Father's Day everyone! Especially, to you, Dad. Thanks for putting up with my bull for all these years. ;) Anyways, let's get this thing rolling!

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Set Sail! – To a New Continent!**

 _Infinity Mountain. A-Day+5. Sunset.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After we had defeated Devimon, we all huddled around the holographic projector and listened carefully to what was being said by the mysterious old man that was being projecting.  
"So you are the Chosen Children." He began. "Quite impressive, seeing that you've defeated Devimon." Not really, it would've been more impressive if we wiped the floor with him from the start without any causalities; not by a knife's edge and tremendous sacrifice.  
"Who are you?" Taichi asked.  
"One of Devimon's allies?" accused Yamato.  
"No need to worry. I'm on your side." He assured.  
"Well, that's nice to hear for once." I muttered.  
"It's amazing to finally see another human besides us in this world." Sora said.  
"But although I'm human, at the same time, I am not." The man informed.  
"Are you a ghost?" Mimi questioned. Does she not know what a projector is or what?

"My name is Gennai. Because Devimon was interfering with me all this time, I couldn't contact you earlier. I'm glad to finally meet you."  
"Contacting us…" spoke up Koushiro. "But from where?"  
"I'm on Server Continent, which is located pretty far from this File Island."  
"Since when have you been there, Gennai-san?" Sora asked.  
"I've always been in this world."  
"Were you the one who called us here?" wondered Mimi.  
"No, I'm not."  
"Then who?"  
"Well…" He took a second to pause. "I don't know." We all groaned or moaned in frustration.  
"Come on! Stop being so mysterious!" I bluntly stated.  
"I'm sorry, but not even I have the answers to everything." Then what answers do you have?

"Then do you know what we have to do to go back to our world?" Takeru questioned.  
"I… don't know that either." I was about to lay into him again, but Taichi beat me to it.  
"What the heck, Gramps! We can't depend on you at all."  
"But I'm depending on you."  
"Huh?" We all said.  
"Come to Server Continent and defeat the enemy here. As the Chosen Children, you should be able to do it."  
"We don't know how to get there, though." Koushiro informed.  
"Ah, true. I forgot you haven't been in this world long. I'll send you a map through your laptop." Koushiro looked back to his PowerBook.

"But there's not a chance we can beat an enemy that's stronger than Devimon." Jou said. Well, Gennai didn't say anything about a more powerful enemy but with Devimon's threat, I guess it's assumed. So how could we accomplish this goal of defeating the enemy without suffering more losses?  
"Not so." Gennai countered. "You can, if your Digimon can evolve to an even higher level." Wait, they can evolve to the Perfect-Level?  
"We can evolve further?" Agumon expressed both amazement and doubt.  
"You'll need these in order to do so." Gennai's hologram vanished and was replaced by a strange gold looking necklace with a clear window on the front of it, like something you'd put a picture in. Beside it was this small orange looking emblem that looked like it could fit in. That was confirmed when the projector did just that. "By inserting a Crest into this Tag, you Digimon can achieve higher evolution."  
"Where can we find those Tags and Crests?" Gabumon asked.  
"Well, the Crests are scattered everywhere throughout Server Continent. As for the Tags, Devimon gathered them up and sealed them somewh…" The image began to flicker. "Ah, oh no… Devi… interference…" Looks like we were losing our connection.  
"What was that?" Yamato tried to get what Gennai said. Sadly, the whole projector shut down before we heard anything more from the mysterious man.

"He disappeared." observed Taichi.  
"What was that all about?" Mimi asked about why the connection stopped. Koushiro sat on the ground getting his laptop out again and started typing away as he usually did.  
"It looks like he was able to send the map." Koushiro informed. I looked over to see it, and it kinda resembled East Asia, at the part of the map we could see looked like it. The differences being File Island stood all by its lonesome where the Philippines should be, there was no Taiwan, and somehow the entire Italian Peninsula minus Sicily had switched with Hong Kong.  
"What should we do now?" Sora asked for our next move.  
"Let's get off this mountain first." Taichi answered. "We can decide on something after eating some grub!" After everything that's happened, food is the best thing right now.

 _File Island, Digital World. A-Day+5. Evening._

We found ourselves a wealth of food we could eat before we planned our next move. During dinner, we all explained what had happened to each of us during the day. Taichi explained how he landed on an iceberg and ran into a black gear controlled Yukidarumon. Freeing the icy Digimon; they were able to get to the island where Yamato landed. Yamato mentioned how he caught a cold, nearly froze to death trying to find Takeru, and being saved by Gabumon who ended up with the cold. The two soon reunited before getting into a pretty big fight; Yamato was hesitant to mention it but Taichi was being pretty detailed. Their fight stopped when they were attacked by Mojyamon who they freed as well and destroyed the black gears that sent their island back to Infinity Mountain.

For Koushiro and Mimi, they had their own troubles. Koushiro landed near the Ancient Dino Ruins and began trying to figure out its secrets. Mimi landed on an island adjacent to Koushiro's and ran into Sukamon and Chuumon, who after trying to rob them, led them to Koushiro. Mimi soon got fed up with Koushiro and ran with Tentomon deeper into the ruins which turned out to be a maze. Koushiro and Palmon got them out of there but were attacked by a controlled Kentarumon. They freed him from the dark influence and he led them to a room and explained the power of the Digivices. It came in handing when Leomon attacked them but was driven off by the holy power of the Digivices.

Sora and Jou probably had the most terrifying of adventures for us. Jou was on the ocean and attacked by Ogremon and ended up nearly drowning if not for being fished out by Sora. The two of them then went on to a church where they thought they had found other humans. As it turns out, it was sinister trap set by shape shifting ghosts called Bakemon. They were saved from being eaten by Bakemon-sama and managed to destroy, not drive out a black gear, but destroy a Digimon. So Devimon wasn't the first Digimon we killed but I guess we have to assume some Digimon are evil that we have to destroy just to survive. I kinda wished I was with them Ghostbusting because I have both soundtracks with me!

After telling the others of what Takeru and I went through, we just finished eating at the end of our tale.  
"I'm stuffed!" Agumon exclaimed.  
"I feel much more relaxed now!" Piyomon chimed in.  
"Nothing like a nice large meal to calm ya down." Guilmon added.  
"Eating a full meal can also sure make you sleepy." pointed out Tentomon. I looked over to see by the pond that Takeru was just sitting there rubbing Patamon's egg. Poor kid. I wish things had gone differently. Yamato probably was feeling worse considering it was his brother as he walked up to him.  
"Takeru?" He asked.  
"It's nothing. I was just hoping my Digiegg would hatch soon and grow."  
"Your Digimon will join everyone here soon enough." Takeru's mood brightened with that comment.  
"Yeah, you're right."

"Well, then… Now that we're all nice and fed, let's figure out what we should do next." Taichi began this meeting.  
"Gennai-san told us to come to Server Continent, but…" Sora spoke first.  
"If this map is correct, it's a pretty far distance from here." informed Koushiro.  
"I can't even swim beyond twenty-five meters. It's impossible for me." Mimi complained.  
"Do we really have to go?" Jou asked the big question. Why? Do we really need to go to this place and fight more enemies? "Devimon is gone from this island. The black gears are gone too. Our one week stay here has made us more or less familiar with the landmarks." Well, six days, Jou, but might as well be a week. "There's plenty of water and food too." Hate to admit it, but everything just said by Jou made sense. We'd be much better off and in less danger staying here then going to Server.  
"What are you trying to say?" Sora wanted clarification.  
"Can we really trust what this Gennai said? Is there really a Server Continent?" Again, valid points.  
"Hey, what's all this?" Taichi stood up. "We can't go back to our world if we just sit here!" And there's the biggest argument for going to Server; do we want to go home?  
"He's right. If we don't do this, then we might as well say goodbye to home. If there's even a chance of going home by dealing with the enemy on Server, then we have to take it!" I argued.  
"It took all we could to defeat Devimon. But there will be even stronger enemies waiting for us." worried Sora.  
"Besides, how can we cross the ocean to get to the continent?" Koushiro reminded us about our lack of transportation.  
"There might be weird Digimon over there too!" Mimi said.  
"Maybe we should keep a look on things here for a little longer." Yamato finally spoke.  
"Oh, come on, guys!" Taichi complained.

"Let's go!" Takeru surprised us.  
"Takeru!" Yamato was shocked at his brother's answer.  
"I don't know what enemies are waiting for us, but let's try it! I'm sure that's what Angemon would have said. That's why… I…"  
"We'll go too!" Agumon declared. "We can evolve further if you have the Tags and Crests, right? I'm sure we'll be able to protect you if we have them."  
"Agumon!" Taichi said.  
"Ross, I'm sure we can do it!" Guilmon encouraged.  
"Sora, let's go!" Piyomon insisted.  
"I'm sure things will work out!" Tentomon assured.  
"There won't be any other flower over there more beautiful than I am!" boasted Palmon.  
"I can swim across the ocean carrying you if I have to!" Gomamon reminded Jou.  
"Yamato! Let's go!" Gabumon asserted.  
"Let's go." said Yamato.  
"Yeah. Let's go." Sora added.  
"I was planning on going from the start." I insisted.  
"All right. I'll go too." Jou chimed in.  
"If everyone else is going, than I am too!" Mimi spoke up.  
"A new continent, huh?" Sounds like we can count Koushiro in.  
"All right then. It's decided! Let's head to Server Continent!" Taichi stated.  
"Yeah!" We all cheered.

We all got ready to go to bed as we had a long day tomorrow to prepare for the journey to Server Continent. Most of us quietly went to sleep but I had to get a quick drink of water from the pond. When I turned around, Yamato was standing there.  
"What is it, Yamato?" I asked him.  
"Ross, listen, I just wanted to thank you… for looking out for Takeru for me when I couldn't do it."  
"Hey, it's no problem, I did what I though was the right thing to do and watch over him until we found you."  
"Yeah, I assume you do the same with Taichi's little sister?"  
"That's how I knew how to look after Takeru; I just did what I usually do with Hikari."  
"I thought Taichi was being a jerk when he said he knew how I felt, but I guess he'd do anything for Hikari then, right?" I nodded. If only you knew, Yamato.  
"Look, let's get some rest. We got a lot to do for tomorrow."  
"Right." The two of us rejoined the others and we all went to sleep.

 _File Island, Digital World. A-Day+6. Morning._

We got up first thing in the morning and headed down to the nearest beach where we could begin gathering everything we need for the journey to Server. What we needed was to gather enough food and water in order to keep us well stocked for our long trip as well as enough to keep us without having to find food once we came ashore. Then the other major issue was getting across the ocean, so in answer to that, we were trying to build a raft… though that was taking much longer than we wanted.  
"It looks like it'll take a long time just to cut down the trees." Koushiro observed.  
"There's no point in rushing." Sora told him. "Let's not be hasty." We heard footsteps and saw that Leomon was approaching our position.  
"Leomon."  
"I've heard you're leaving for Server Continent."  
"How did you know that?" Sora asked.  
"Some of us monsters love to gossip. I was wondering if you needed any help with anything." Sora and Koushiro's moods brightened.  
"You'll really help us?"  
"There are more than enough helping hands." He turned his head to reveal that several Digimon we had encounters with the past week were coming to help. There was Elecmon, Kentarumon, Mojyamon, Monzaemon, Yukidarumon, Meramon and some of the Pyocomon from the village were all coming to give a hand.

With the assistance of all of them, work on the raft was proceeding with such great speed. It left us in the position to gather food and water. After a few hours, everything was ready. Our Digimon hopped on the raft and slid it down to the beach and the water to see if the thing would float. Our raft passed the test and was floating perfectly on the water. The sail we had attached would get us moving fast if there was a good wind.  
"It's done!" Taichi declared.  
"It looks like it has good balance too!" perceived Koushiro.  
"Can we really cross the ocean with this?" Jou wondered.  
"Since we've already decided to go, we'll just have to use it!" Taichi concluded. Leomon once again walked up to us.  
"I'm sure that with your abilities, you'll be able to cross this ocean safely."  
"Thanks, Leomon! We couldn't have done this without you!" We were quickly interrupted by the sound of something cracking and Takeru being surprised.

"What's wrong?" Yamato asked the younger blond. Takeru had a wide smile on his face as the egg cracked open and revealed a Poyomon!  
"Poyo~"  
"The Digiegg hatched!" Takeru cheered. Well, that goodbye wasn't long. What was that, less than twelve hours?  
"Poyo!" The baby jumped out of the egg and into Takeru's hands. "Poyomon!"  
"It's so cute!" Mimi exclaimed.  
"That's great!" Sora chimed.  
"Happy for ya, buddy!" I said.  
"Yay, yay!" Takeru was just too happy. "All right!"

After that moment, we all hopped aboard the raft, hopeful to reach the continent of Server soon. The Digimon that had helped us were all on shore, waiting to see us off.  
"This is farewell." Leomon reluctantly admitted. I kinda think deep down he wish he could go with us or maybe we'd stay. After all, he's a powerful and loyal ally. "Take care."  
"Goodbye." "Bye! Thank you!" "Take care!" "See you!" We all said our goodbyes as well as the Digimon began shrinking in our sight the further out we got on the ocean. Our spirits were high, we had learn to survive in this unforgiving world and though we didn't get through completely clear, we still felt confident we could deal with whatever comes next. If we found those Tags and Crests, we'd be golden.

 _Grand Ocean, Digital World. A-Day+6. Late Morning._

"HAUGH!" Jou barfed over the side.  
"Crying out loud, Jou-san." I said.  
"Ugh, I don't know how those Navy guys do it." Jou had been feeling seasick for most of past hour we had been sailing. We could no longer see File Island behind us, so we were in for it now. Server or bust! From there, Tokyo or bust! Taichi was looking ahead through his telescope to keep an eye for what was ahead.  
"I can't see anything." Taichi announced.  
"I wonder how long it will take." Jou spoke up.  
"We just set sail!"  
"But even if we cut down our food and water to the bare minimum, it'll only last us half a month."  
"Then we can fish or something."  
"All we have to hope for now is good weather." Sora pointed out.  
"That and some calm waters." I added.

While some of us were feeling… okay… some of the others were not feeling great.  
"I feel seasick…" Mimi complained.  
"I didn't think it would be this rocky…" Koushiro admitted.  
"There, there, Poyomon!" Takeru seemed to be fine thanks to him playing with Poyomon.  
"Poyo! Poyo!" The poor little thing almost went overboard when we hit a hard wave. Thankfully, Takeru was quick to catch.  
"Hey, Poyomon! Be careful!" The rough seas were just a warning to what was coming next.  
"Wh-What's that?!" questioned Taichi. The answer was a large wave that rocked us hard.  
"Where did that come from?" Yamato accused.  
"There's no wind here that could be causing these waves!" Koushiro informed.  
"Maybe a ship is passing nearby." Jou randomly guessed.  
"There's no ship here." Taichi shot him down.

The answer to the question would be revealed when out of the water came massive object.  
"It's an island!" Taichi shouted.  
"No… That's definitely not an island!" Sora countered. It wasn't and island but rather a giant whale because it tried to splash us with its tail. Its head was mostly brown while the rest of it was blue. The question that had to be asked though was this a Digimon as well? The whale's movements sent us rocking all over the place before he surfaced once again.  
"That's Whamon! He's an enormous Digimon who lives in the Digital World's deep seas. The giant tidal waves he causes, and his Jet Arrow blasting through his blowhole, are fiercer than you would expect." Tentomon explained.  
"Wh-Why is he doing this?" Gabumon asked.  
"Whamon is a powerful monster, but he always keeps to the bottom of the ocean!" The large mammal turned around and opens his mouth wide. Oh I know where he's going with this. All the water began dragging into Whamon's mouth and our raft was caught in the tide as well!  
"No, don't eat us!" Mimi begged but he didn't listen and we were dragged into to his mouth like we were Pinocchio and he was Monstro. The light suddenly went out as his mouth was closed and now, we were his lunch.

"This must be Whamon's esophagus!" Koushiro theorized. "And by that, I don't mean the Japanese homonym for it that means 'restaurant'!" The word 'Shokudou' could mean esophagus or restaurant depending on the kanji that was used.  
"We know that!" Jou was clearly not in the mood.  
"He ate us after all!" The realization finally hit Mimi.  
"Now I know how Jonah felt!" I shouted.  
"Where's the exit?" Sora asked.  
"Uh, you really want to know?" Koushiro was hesitant to answer, as we all knew where the exit was.  
"I don't want to leave from there!" Mimi screamed.  
"Like poop." Thank you, Palmon; we were all trying to avoid saying that.  
"Don't say it!" Soon, large purple blobs began to swarm and land in the water all around us. It was safe to assume these were Whamon's antibodies and we clearly were a hostile foreign body.  
"Why are they attacking us?" Taichi seems to forget that antibodies will check to see if there's anything harmful in any of the food that the body consumes.  
"They probably think that we're bacteria or something!" answered Koushiro.

We finally got out of the long flesh tunnel and landed in a bright chamber which more than likely was the stomach.  
"We landed somewhere spacious." Sora admitted.  
"Where's this?" Jou asked.  
"The esophagus should have led us to his stomach…" Koushiro informed yet again.  
"The stomach is where the food gets digested, right?" Takeru wanted a reminder to see if he was correct.  
"Yeah." Yamato answered. Suddenly some red lights were activated around us and the room began filling with a very disturbing liquid.  
"Gastric juice!" Koushiro called out.  
"Gastric juice?" Mimi questioned.  
"It's a strong acidic fluid that dissolves everything that enters the stomach!"  
"In short, everything it touches melts!" I stated. It began to do said thing when it made contact with the wood of the raft.  
"It's breaking down…" worried Takeru.  
"Don't fall in!" Taichi warned.  
"We've got to get out of here quickly before things get worse!" Jou exclaimed.  
"Taichi! Look up there!" Sora pointed above and imbedded in the stomach wall was one of Devimon's black gears. Even when dead, his influence still plays hell with us.  
"A black gear!" Taichi shouted.

"So that's why Whamon was acting wild!" Agumon concluded.  
"And why he went after us!" Guilmon added.  
"Let's do something for him!" Gomamon said.  
"How?" Jou questioned.  
"Climb up there using my vines!" Palmon explained. "Poison Ivy!" Her vines wrapped around the gear. Now someone had to climb up there.  
"Okay, I'll go!" Taichi volunteered. He began to climb up the vines until he managed to reach the gear. Then the Digivice did its job and destroyed the gear. However, without the gear, Palmon was holding on to nothing and it left Taichi falling towards us where he made a perfect landing. "I got it!" A moment later, the whole room began to glow white and we felt ourselves being levitated upward. We hung on tight for dear life in order not to fall to a grim fate below.  
"Where are we going now?!" Yamato shouted. It turned out to be the blowhole as we were all shot out of the large whale and into the ocean beneath him. The raft was destroyed and we held on to the small logs that were left to keep our heads above the water.

"Sora, are you okay?" Piyomon worried.  
"Yeah."  
"We were able to get out of there somehow." said Agumon.  
"Yeah." Taichi agreed.  
"Poyomon, are you okay?" Takeru asked.  
"Poyo." I guess he was fine.  
"Thank goodness." Whamon turned back towards us. For what, I have no idea but it may not be good for we know.  
"Don't come near us!" Mimi shouted.  
"I'm sorry for my outrageous behavior." Whamon began. Oh, good, he's like most Digimon we've freed from Devimon's influence.  
"It's not your fault, Whamon!" Piyomon tried to assure him.  
"It's all because of the black gear." Sora added.  
"That must have been the last one." Taichi said.  
"Are you sure about that?" Jou was correct in the whole assuming the black gears were gone, let's wait and see, Taichi.  
"My head finally feels clear now, thanks to you." thanked Whamon.

"Whamon! Do you know how far Server Continent is from here?" Taichi asked.  
"Yes. It takes me about five days to get there."  
"That must mean it's pretty far…" Yamato mumbled.  
"This is a problem… Our raft is broken…" Takeru observed.  
"Are you trying to get to Server Continent?" Whamon wondered.  
"Yeah, that's right!" Agumon confirmed.  
"Allow me to take you there as my thanks for getting rid of the black gear."  
"Really?" Sora said. We'd get there much fast on Whamon then we would with the raft, that's for sure.  
"Lucky!" Mimi cheered before she accidently almost went under due to letting go of the log. Palmon fished her up.

The next thirty minutes was actually pretty relaxing. The wind was drying us off, we were making much better speed and we were no longer helpless as I doubt few could challenge Whamon in the ocean.  
"The wind feels great!" Sora declared.  
"This is a much more pleasant experience than the raft!" Koushiro chimed in.  
"It's certainly faster than the raft." I added.  
"I won't get seasick from this!" Mimi said.  
"Now all that's left is to find the Crests and Tags that Devimon sealed away!" Taichi announced our next move once we reach Server.  
"Did you just mention Devimon?" Whamon asked.  
"Do you know something?"  
"I'm not quite sure what you mean by Tags and Crests, but I do recall that Devimon once hid something in a place underneath the waters." Well, another lucky break for us! Though how Devimon got under the ocean is a mystery but it's not important. What's important is the thing Devimon hid, it might just be the Tags if what Gennai said about the Crests being scattered on Server is true.  
"Where's that?"  
"It's along the way to Server Continent. Please take shelter for a while within my body while I go there, everyone." We did as we were told and used Whamon as a submarine as he proceeded to head towards the location that he had said Devimon visited.

We came to a stop in an underwater cavern that had an air pocket so we could safely leave Whamon.  
"As I can't go any farther, I will wait for you here." Whamon explained.  
"Thanks!" Taichi said. We turned and walked down deeper into the cave. When we reached the end, there was a familiar sight waiting for us.  
"That's…!" Jou was dumbfounded.  
"A convenience store!" Taichi finished. It seemed a little suspicious that Devimon would hide something and just leave it alone. The ground was ripped in front of us and climbing out of a whole was something I was kinda expecting. I think we may have guessed that Devimon would've left a guardian to protect whatever it was he was hiding. The guardian was a large mole-like Digimon with purple fur on the top half of his body and white underneath; he walked on all fours and had a large drill on the front of his head.  
"Wh-What's that?" Yamato questioned.  
"It's Drimogemon! He lives deep underground and uses his drill to mole at high speeds. His sharp Drill Spin and Crusher Bone attacks are devastating to his enemies!" Agumon informed us. We noticed on the top of his head was a black gear so he wasn't a willing participant to guarding for Devimon.  
"He has a black gear!" Sora exclaimed.  
"What was that about the last of the black gears?" I reminded Taichi about his earlier comment.  
"My mistake!"

"No one is allowed to enter here under Devimon-sama's orders!" The drilling Digimon avowed. "Leave at once!" At once? Well, at least this one gives us a choice as opposed to all the other controlled Digimon that just tried to kill us no matter what.  
"Taichi! Let us take care of this! Go look for the Tags!" Agumon informed.  
"Okay!" Drimogemon's drill began to spin as he approached us.  
"Heh! That drill's not scary at all!" Gomamon defiantly stated. "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAUKUMON!" The two horned Digimon charged straight towards each other.  
"Drill Spin!" The two clashed and soon turned into a tug of war between the horns.  
"Guys! Now!" Taichi led us into the store using the distraction to get around the large mole. We got into the store but Drimogemon crashed into the front of the building, losing his fight.  
"Ikkakumon, try going easy on the offence!" Jou ordered Ikkakumon to hold up his assault.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" He clearly didn't hear as the shot crashed into Drimogemon but also wrecked much of the store with us in it. The dust is so thick; I can't see my own hand in front of my face.  
"Let me at him! Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!"  
"Crusher Bone!" Drimogemon threw a large bone at Kabuterimon who dodged the projectile and began to counter attacked in kind.  
"Kabuterimon, aim for the black gear!" Guilmon ordered.  
"Mega Blaster!" The attack hit right in the mole's back and the gear was destroyed, freeing Drimogemon from the late Devimon's control.

The rest of us humans were trying to regroup in the destroyed store that Ikkakumon did a number on.  
"Poyomon!" Takeru called out through the dust. "Poyomon, where are you? Poyomon! You can't go in there!" It sounded like he found him. "Huh? What's this?" We walked over and found Poyomon was on top of a small box.  
"I-I'm very sorry!" We heard Drimogemon apologized outside. The guy actually sounded kinda nervous, like what we saw was just a front.  
"Wait!" Gabumon stopped him. "Where are the Tags?"  
"Th-They should be inside the store. Good luck finding them!" Yamato took the box out of Takeru's hands and opened it to reveal that we had found the Tags!  
"It's the Tags." He said. There were eight of them inside, one for each of us.  
"They look exactly like the one Gennai-san showed us." said Koushiro.  
"They're so pretty!" Mimi happily admired.

We all put the Tags around our necks and returned to Whamon who took us back to the surface. It was now sunset by the time we resurface. We all stood atop the large whale with the wind blowing through our hair.  
"Gennai mentioned the Crests are spread throughout Server Continent, right?" Yamato wanted a reminder of what was said before.  
"Yeah. If we combine the Tag Crest…" Gabumon began.  
"We can evolve further." Agumon finished.  
"And once we do that, then we can handle anything we face, right?" I asked.  
"Yeah! Nothing will stop us once we definitely find those Crests!" Taichi proclaimed.

Our spirts were at an all-time high, with Tags around our necks and the hope of finding the Crests, we could handle anything the Server Continent could throw at us…

* * *

And that was Chapter 15. Once again, sorry for the delay.

Anyways, I have little to say this time so next chapter... look forward to the 19th or the 20th. Edit: 21st, Had to deal with some things. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	17. Etemon! Grand Entrance of Evil!

Chapter 16, everyone!

Sorry for some delays but I'm cranking these out pretty quick.

Quick shout out to **KCloudMonet** , you rock, man!

So, let's get it on!

* * *

 **Chapter 16: Etemon! Grand Entrance of Evil!**

 _Offshore Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+11. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

It had now been our twelfth day in the Digital World and our fifth one at sea as the morning sun began to rise. Whamon had turned into the ultimate blessing as who knows how long it would've take to get to Server on that raft. During that time, we got to know each other, what we liked to do, what are interests were. Talking was really all we could do while riding Whamon. Another thing we did was explain more about our world to the Digimon. Some moments got awkward like when Guilmon wanted to know about World War II in the Pacific; not really understanding there was a mutual respect that I had to the others in not to bring up or talk about the war. It was like that Fawlty Towers scene involving the Germans. But it did feel nice to at least bring the Digimon up in their knowledge of our world.

It had been a few hours since sunrise and we still saw nothing in terms of land. Most of the others were still catching up on some sleep while Taichi and myself kept our eyes on the horizon.  
"Today's the fifth day since we've set sail." Taichi said.  
"Yeah, I know. Why are you saying that?" I asked.  
"Sorry. Just thinking out loud."  
"Well, we've got to be close now. Hey, Whamon! Didn't you say it takes you five days to get to Server Continent?"  
"I did. In fact, we're almost there." He informed.  
"Really?" Both our moods brightened. Taichi pulled out his telescope and looked ahead. Apparently he saw something because he became really excited.  
"Is that Server Continent?" He asked Whamon.  
"Yes."  
"All right! Hey guys, wake up! It's the continent! We've reached Server Continent!"

"What's all the noise?" Yamato groaned half asleep.  
"What was that you said about a comestible feast?" Jou yawned. Taichi said 'Tairiku' which is kanji for continent, but Jou clearly misheard.  
"No, 'Tairiku', Jou-san. Not 'Taiyaki'." I clarified.  
"Yeah, I said 'continent', not 'comestible'. Look, it's Server Continent!"  
"Continent?" Sora questioned.  
"So we're finally here?" asked Koushiro.  
"All right, we're here!" Takeru cheered.  
"Wow, what a big island!" Agumon awed.  
"It's not an island, it's a continent!" Piyomon reminded.  
"This is my first time seeing so much land on the horizon." Tentomon admitted.  
"Wake up, Mimi! You can see Server Continent! It's the continent! The continent!" Looks like Palmon was trying to wake Mimi but she clearly wanted more sleep.  
"I'd rather have regular cake that taiyaki…" Mimi made the same mistake as Jou.  
"Oh, Mimi…"

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

After discussing our first moves about where to land and what to do next, Whamon pulled up to a cliffside that we could get down to by sliding off of him.  
"Come on, Mimi-chan!" I called out. "Be brave!"  
"Why do we have to get off here? Aren't there better places to land?!" She complained.  
"Well… There is an inlet a little bit up north where it appears to be easier for us to get off…" Koushiro informed.  
"Which is where its the perfect place for some evil Digimon to jump us. Here? Not so much." Ross explained.  
"And that's why we all held a discussion and decided to land here! You were sleeping, though!" pointed out Jou.  
"Don't decide on important things like that without me there!" Mimi argued. The poor girl has just been out of her comfort zone for too long. Whamon moved a bit that made Mimi lose her balance and slide down the whale to the cliff below where she landed painfully on Ross. "I hate this!"

"Farewell, everyone! Take care!" Whamon said his goodbyes as he turned around and headed back to the open sea.  
"Thanks, Whamon! Take care!" We all said our respectful goodbyes to him as he headed towards the horizon.  
"Well, where do we go now?" Mimi asked.  
"Whamon told us that if we walk ahead, we'll reach a Koromon village in the forests within half a day." filled in Palmon.  
"Koromon? I think I've heard that name before."  
"I used to be a Koromon." Agumon refreshed her memory.  
"Oh yeah!"  
"The Koromon should be willing to help us." Tentomon said.  
"Especially if we have someone who used to be one." Guilmon added. I guess it would be the same as Piyomon in the Pyocomon village.  
"All right then, let's go!" Taichi announced.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+11. Midday._

We had been walking throughout much of the day, most of it in hot, barren landscapes. It was clear that Koromon village wasn't as close as we thought. In fact, it was gonna take us a lot longer to get anywhere seeing as we were walking through a continent.  
"We're really on a continent…" Jou stated the obvious.  
"Hey, what's with the obvious remarks?" asked Gomamon.  
"Because, we've been walking for so long and the scenery hasn't even changed a single bit!"  
"I thought once we reached shore, I could take a bath." Mimi moaned.  
"You can, once we reach the village." Palmon assured, of course, would they have a bath?  
"When will we get there then? What hour, what minute, what second?"  
"Well…"  
"Huh?" Agumon grunted before he ran forward and started to sniff the air. Apparently, something caught his nose.  
"Agumon, what's up?" Taichi questioned.  
"I smell Koromon over here."  
"What?" Taichi ran up to him and began looking through his telescope to see if he could spot the village. "It's a forest!"  
"A forest?" We all said.  
"Think the Koromon village is over there?" Yamato inquired.  
"Probably!" answered Taichi before the two of them started to run.  
"Wait, Taichi!" I warned as we all chased after him.

Another thirty minutes later, we were currently out of the hot sun and in the nice cooler forest. But still there was no sign of the village until we got to the top of a hill. Down in the valley was a bunch of huts surrounding a much larger one, and these huts looked to be much larger than the ones in the Pyocomon village.  
"It's the Koromon village!" Takeru declared.  
"A bath!" Mimi shouted before running down the hill with Palmon close behind.  
"Hey, Mimi, wait!"  
"Huh?" Agumon muttered.  
"What's wrong, Agumon?" Taichi once again asked.  
"This isn't the place." What? What does he mean? We followed Mimi down the hill towards the village. When we got to it, Mimi was still on that idea of a bath.

"A bath, a bath, a bath!" She cheered. She ran up to several Digimon on the ground but even from a distance, we knew they weren't Koromon. They were shaped like one but they were grey and had dog like ears with three furry prongs. "Hey, where are your baths?" The Digimon turned around and revealed they had red eyes with black pupils. "Huh? Did Koromon always look like this?"  
"No, these are Pagumon." Palmon informed. "They're Baby Digimon who love to bully the weak and make fools out of others." Well, that doesn't sound helpful for us, especially when the grabbed Mimi and are taking her away! "Mimi!" The rest of us caught up with Palmon. "Those guys took her!"  
"This wasn't the Koromon village?" Jou asked.  
"Guess not!" answered Gomamon. A quick look would show that this village was filled with nothing but dozens of Pagumon.  
"Which way did she go?" Yamato questioned. We heard a shout coming from the tallest hut that sounded exactly like Mimi.  
"Over there!" Taichi motioned. "Mimi!"

We got inside the main hut and discovered it to be quite roomy, with a large central staircase that I just happened to notice a familiar pink Stetson lying on it.  
"There's Mimi-chan's hat!" I pointed out. I ran up and picked it up. "It's definitely hers." The others ran by me to a hallway.  
"Hey, isn't that Mimi-kun's bag?" observed Jou.  
"You're right." Koushiro said. "It can't be anyone else's but hers!"  
"Okay then. She must be in here!" Taichi walked through the curtains in the hallway. I looked over to some sort of cabinets and there were some wicker baskets that I looked to see that there was Mimi's socks, her gloves, her… Oh no!  
"Don't, Taichi!" I called out. As if on cue before Taichi could open the curtain, he was yanked by the collar by Ross. Taichi quickly looked at him before Ross spoke out.  
"Mimi-chan? Are you behind this curtain?"  
"Y-Yes!" A voice, clearly Mimi's, and she was somewhat caught off guard.  
"Are you decent?"  
"N-No! I'm taking a bath in here!" The look on the guy's faces when they heard that, especially Taichi's considering he almost stormed in on her bathing, was almost priceless. "Head in there, Sora. Guys, let us leave them alone." The others began walking away while Taichi, myself and Ross still stood outside the curtain to the bath.  
"Thanks, Ross." I said.  
"Yeah, really, that could've been embarrassing." Taichi admitted.  
"Hey, my job is to keep you out of trouble, isn't it?" He flashed a smile to the goggle wearing boy.

By evening, we found ourselves in for quite the surprise, we were already surprised to find that the Pagumon were being hospitable what with giving Mimi and later myself a nice bath, and this one wasn't an illusion created by an evil Digimon. If these Pagumon were bullies, then that was a nasty rumor because now they were treating us to a nice dinner. Still, some of us were a little on edge. Ross was keeping his eyes and ears out for 'the slightest hint of treachery'. I think this place is starting to make him slightly paranoid but after everything that has happened, I guess being on alert couldn't hurt. The Pagumon had thrown up decorations and were wearing little party hats like this was someone's birthday.

"Welcome! Welcome! This is the Pagumon village!" The Pagumon began to sing.  
"Apparently this was a Pagumon village." Gabumon said.  
"That's weird… I'm sure I smelled Koromon here…" Agumon replied.  
"I'm with you, Agumon. I could've sworn I smelt them too." Guilmon added.  
"Thank you for waiting!" The Pagumon brought us up plates of food.  
"I feel like Lady Otohime when she arrived at the Coral Palace!" Mimi exclaimed.  
"You're mixing up characters. You mean Urashima." corrected Jou. Mimi was being reminded of the story of Urashima Taro, a fairly popular Japanese fairy tale.  
"You don't think these are fake, do you?" I asked Taichi. I was somewhat worried about another illusion trick.  
"As if stuff like that happens twice!" He assured as he took a bite of some fruit. "Delicious! It's real!" Yeah, that's what we thought before.

"But this is quite odd. I've heard that Pagumon are rascals." I think bullies or jerks might fit better, Tentomon.  
"It must have just been a rumor." Gomamon dismissed.  
"Yes, yes, it's just a rumor!" A Pagumon said as two of them hopped by with more food.  
"They're really nice Digimon!" Piyomon declared.  
"Yes, yes, we're very nice Digimon!"  
"Does it taste good?" Takeru questioned Poyomon. He suddenly stopped eating and began to shake before bursting into a bright light. When the light died down, on the floor was once again Tokomon. "It's Tokomon!" The little Digimon hopped into Takeru's arms.  
"You evolve!" congratulated Koushiro.  
"That's great, Takeru." Yamato added.  
"The next time you evolve, you'll be Patamon!" Gabumon reminded.  
"Takeru! Let's do our best together again!" Tokomon cheered.  
"Okay!"  
"Applause, everyone!" Mimi requested. We all clapped in congratulations.  
"Congratulations!" We all said.

 _Pagumon Village, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+11. Nighttime.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

Nighttime had fallen on the village and the Chosen Children and their respective Digimon had long retired to bed in the central hut. For them, it was a peaceful sleep, one that they didn't need to worry about being attacked at any random moment. Of course, things don't go the way people want as Tokomon sadly found out. He slowly opened his eyes, still drowsy, to find multiple Pagumon surrounding him with sinister looks in their eyes. Several minutes later, they had him tied up and were carrying him out of the village, all the while he was crying in fear.  
"Wh-Why are you doing this?!" He cried.  
"Because you evolved!" One of them said as he poked Tokomon with a stick. "That's right, that's right!" The rest of the Pagumon group chimed in.  
"You aren't nice Digimon?!"  
"It was an act! You're all stupid for falling for it!" "Stupid, stupid!"

"Hey! What are you doing over there?" A voice shouted out. Overlooking them on a small ridge were three creatures. They were gray canine looking Digimon with long ears like a rabbit, sharp claws on their hands and feet, and a long, cat like tail with three small belts on it.  
"Gazimon!" The Pagumon cried out.  
"Where'd that Tokomon come from?" The lead Gazimon demanded.  
"H-He came with a bunch of humans." A Pagumon choked out, it was clear they were fearful of the Gazimon. The Gazimon looked surprised.  
"Humans? That's a surprise… Okay, you Pagumon throw that Tokomon behind the waterfall with the others." The Pagumon did as they were told and locked Tokomon in a cage that was in a cave behind the waterfall. "Who would have guessed that the Chosen Children would show up here?"  
"I'll go inform Etemon-sama about this. You guys take care of the rest!" A second Gazimon said as ran off.  
"Gotcha!" The other two answered. "You lot, don't let the children escape!" One of the two remaining Gazimon ordered the Pagumon once again.  
"Okay~!" They all shouted.

For the lone Gazimon, he spent the rest of the night running and hopping across the vast fields and deserts of the continent until early in the morning he finally reached his destination. It was an area by the coast that had a bunch of boats buried pointing upward to the sky.  
"Etemon-sama! Where are you? Etemon-sama! Etemon-sama!" The Gazimon called out. He was answer by the sounds of footsteps. Approaching him was a Monochromon pulling a trailer which on its side spelled 'laughing gate of the Heavens' or simply 'e-te-mon' in kanji. The trailer began to open and lights started flashing, music of the rock 'n roll verity began to swell, and smoke filled the air. From the smoke revealed an orange monkey wearing sunglasses, a microphone in one hand, he had a few parts of him stitched up and had a small Monzaemon doll at his waist.  
"Yeah yeah! Who's the strongest in the world? That would be me, Etemon!" He boasted. While he was speaking Japanese, it was clear that voice was that of an Elvis Presley impression.  
"All hail Etemon-sama! King of Digimon!" The Gazimon cried before being punched in the head.  
"Shut up! You're too loud for so early in the morning!"  
"Perhaps you should take your own advice, sir…" The Gazimon muttered.  
"Shut up! Silence!" He turned around and looked towards the screen he had in his trailer that appeared to have a map of the entire continent.

"According to my calculations, the Chosen Children will be landing here soon." He pointed to a flashing blue light on the map. "I'm going to ambush them as they hit the beach and crush them all then and there. A nice plan, if I do say so myself! If you make any loud noises, the children will hear you!"  
"The children won't be there."  
"Eh?"  
"The Chosen Children came yesterday and landed someplace else. They're in the Pagumon village right now."  
"Wh-What?! How did that happen?!" He was clearly shocked. Apparently being wrong was a huge blemish on his ego. "Why? Why?!" The Gazimon pointed to the screen.  
"That's not our latest transmission."  
"Wha-!" Etemon slammed down on his control panel. The flashing blue dot then changed positions to where the Pagumon village was. "You're right! Now my plan's ruined! I'll never forgive them for this. Be sure to remember this! Arise, my Dark Network!" The Monochromon that was pulling the trailer was detached and black cables came out of the ground before pulling the trailer along like a railcar. "Go!"  
"Etemon-sama!" The Gazimon quickly hopped aboard before the door shut. "Won't you be gathering your subordinates?"  
"I'll be more than enough for the Chosen Children on my own." He laughed.

 _Pagumon Village, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+12. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi__

We were brought to a sudden awakening in the morning when Takeru cried out that he couldn't find Tokomon. At first, we thought maybe he was somewhere in the village and Takeru just missed him or something but after some exploring, Takeru's worries were now justified. We were now currently scouring the entire area for any trace of Tokomon.  
"Tokomon! Tokomon! Tokomon!" Takeru repeatedly called out. Both Taichi and Ross were on top of a hut looking out with their binoculars and telescopes.  
"Where is he?" Taichi wondered.  
"The little guy couldn't have gotten too far." Ross muttered.  
"Tokomon! Answer me if you can hear me!" Piyomon was flying above the village trying to get a better view.  
"No good. He wasn't here." Sora said.  
"Not here either." Yamato added. Both of them had pointed to the map I had drawn in the dirt with a stick. I crossed out the areas Tokomon wasn't at with an 'x'.  
"I thought I could finally take a break. I wish he'd stop making us go through all this trouble." If there's one problem that I can think a lot of us have with Mimi; it is her self-centeredness.  
"And just who do you think gave us the most trouble all this time?" countered Gomamon.  
"Jou-senpai?" Mimi clearly missed the insult directed at her.  
"He means you!" Jou yelled.  
"He wasn't here! He wasn't here!" A group of Pagumon came back with some news of the search. "He wasn't near the waterfall."  
"I see." I crossed off the waterfall.  
"Tokomon…" Takeru muttered. After everything that has happened with those two, this was a mess that didn't need to come.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Agumon was taking his search of Tokomon to the nearby woods.  
"Hey, Tokomon!" _"They're very faint, but I can smell so many familiar things all over the village."_ He thought to himself. He sniffed the air once again. "This smell." He ran over to the nearby waterfall. "It's definitely the smell of Koromon!" Agumon ran behind the waterfall and discovered Tokomon had been tied up and thrown into a cage.  
"Agumon!" The Baby-Level Digimon cried out.  
"Tokomon!" He ran up to the cage and discovered a bunch of Koromon also locked up in cages. "Koromon! Why are you all locked up in here?"  
"This is really our village!" One Koromon said. "Two or three days earlier, the Pagumon came here and took over our homes!"  
"Then that means those guys are…"  
"Bad guys who are big fat liars!" Tokomon shouted. "You have to let everyone know!"  
"Okay." Agumon nodded. "I'll get you out of here quick!" He tried to open the cage but unfortunately, two Gazimon had followed him into the cave.

"Oh, you're not allowed to do that." One of them said.  
"You guys are…Gazimon!"  
"That's because we'll be offering the Chosen Children to Etemon-sama!"  
"Etemon?"  
"We'll get rid of you right here!" The two jumped the dinosaur and tackled him to the ground.  
"Agumon!" Tokomon shouted. The two canine Digimon then backed off before launching their attack.  
"Paralyze Breath!" The electrical attack ripped through Agumon and he fell to the ground in pain, his whole body numbed by the devastating attack.  
"Two against one isn't fair!" A Koromon shouted.  
"You can do it, Agumon!" Tokomon assured.  
"Taichi, let me evolve!" muttered Agumon.  
"It's no use! No one can here you from outside!" The Gazimon bragged.  
"Damn it, if this waterfall wasn't here… Waterfall? That's it!" He had an epiphany. "Baby Flame!" The two Gazimon dodged out of the way of the fireball and it hit against the water. "Baby Flame!" He did it again, but was not aiming for the Gazimon but rather the waterfall. "Baby Flame!" A third time he did this.  
"Where are you aiming, moron?"

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Tokomon is still a baby, so he shouldn't have been able to go that far." Koushiro said. He was right; no way could the little guy get so far away from us.  
"He's late…" I heard Taichi say above us. "Where is Agumon searching?"  
"Hey, Taichi! Check it out, smoke to the east!" Ross called out next to him.  
"What's that?"  
"What's wrong, guys?" I asked.  
"There's smoke over there." We all turned to see in fact there was smoke coming from the east in the direction of the waterfall.  
"What's that?" Jou questioned.  
"It's Tokomon!" Takeru announced.  
"That can't be! We just searched near that waterfall!" A Pagumon shouted. "We searched, we searched!"  
"But it's possible he arrive there after you finished searching!" theorized Koushiro.  
"I'll go look." Taichi volunteered.  
"You can't!" The Pagumon yelled.  
"Why not?" Sora wondered. "We're just going to take a look."  
"Well… because…" The Pagumon were starting to look both nervous and guilty. We were soon interrupted from this conversation when Mimi shouted in fear.

"Wh-What is this thing?" She was referring to the black blob sitting on her lap while she sat on a bench.  
"It's a Botamon!" Tentomon informed.  
"How can a Botamon be here?" Palmon said.  
"What do you mean?" I asked.  
"Botamon is the Digimon that evolves into Koromon." Gabumon explained.  
"No way should one be in a Pagumon village." Guilmon added.  
"Then this place really is…" Taichi muttered. We all came same conclusion. Agumon was right, this was a Koromon village and the Pagumon… the rumors of them were true. The jig was up for the Pagumon.  
"Welcome~! Welcome~!" They began singing. "This is… not the Pagumon village!" They started to hop away.  
"They're running away." Sora observed.  
"Those tricksters!" Taichi said.  
"I knew there was something off about them." Ross proclaimed.  
"Hey, wait a minute… The waterfall!" I got everyone's attention back to the problem at hand. Taichi's eyes widened.  
"Agumon!" He shouted as he ran towards the forest with the rest of us close behind, Mimi also brought the Botamon with her for safe keeping.

As we approached the waterfall, Taichi kept calling out Agumon's name.  
"Agumon! Agumon!" We found a cave behind the waterfall and inside was Agumon on the ground looking not too good, above him, two unknown Digimon, and Tokomon and the Koromon villagers in cages. "Agumon, are you okay?"  
"Taichi…"  
"It's a Chosen Child!" The canine Digimon shouted.  
"Time to evolve, Agumon!"  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" The numerical advantage that the two Digimon had over Agumon was eliminated immediately the moment he evolved as he caused some rocks to move and force the waterfall to split, revealing the cave to the rest of us. "It's payback time! Mega Flame!" The two Digimon were hit and landed in the water to be washed away by the river.  
"You did it!" Taichi cheered. Takeru ran up and opened the cage that was holding Tokomon.  
"Thank goodness you're safe!" He picked up the Baby-Level Digimon.  
"I'm sorry for worrying you, Takeru!"  
"The Pagumon have run away. It's all right now!" Sora informed the Koromon villagers.  
"Thank you!" They said.

"Hello?" A voice called out, it sounded like it was from a loud speaker.  
"What's with that voice?" Jou asked. We walked outside the cave and saw a giant holographic projection of an orange monkey with a microphone, a guitar, sunglasses, and most of us recognized the Elvis impression.  
"Chosen Children, can you hear me?" He shouted.  
"It's Etemon!" The Koromon yelled in fear.  
"How dare you make a fool out of me, not landing where I wanted you to! Since you've pissed me off, I'm going to destroy everything in this village!"  
"Looks like you were right about landing, Ross." I whispered.  
"I wish for once I'd be wrong!"  
"Wait; did he say everything in the village?" Taichi questioned, more focused on the Etemon hologram.  
"There's no way he can do that!" Koushiro doubted.

"Dark Network!" Etemon shouted. The whole ground began to rumble as the black wires began to rise into the air. Suddenly we began hearing and seeing massive explosions back in the vicinity of the Koromon Village. The wires sending down balls of black colored energy to the ground, causing the explosions. One of the balls landed in the river in front of the parted waterfall and splashed us.  
"Everyone! Time to evolve!" Sora ordered.  
"Okay!" Taichi, Ross and I said.  
"Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!"  
"I won't let you do that!" Etemon boasted. "Love Serenade!" He strung his guitar and then made this loud wailing noise while rock 'n roll began to play. It clearly was affecting our Digimon as the three Adult-Level Digimon roared in pain before reverting back into the Child forms.  
"What's wrong with you guys?!" demanded Taichi.  
"I-I can't feel any power!" Agumon claimed.  
"His Love Serenade drains you of your ability to fight!" Tentomon informed. Great, we're in trouble!  
"Is there any other way to fight against him?" Koushiro asked.  
"Not while we're in this state. If we were able to evolve to a higher level…"  
"If Garurumon evolved to a greater level, it would be possible, right?" I inquired.  
"So this is why Gennai-san told us to get the Tags and Crests." Sora reminded.  
"It's too late for us to realize that now!" Jou claimed.

Another blast of the network began to cause a cave in, trapping us inside.  
"This way, everyone!" A Koromon said. We followed them as we heard Etemon's cackling behind us. Unfortunately, the cave ended to a wall that had a weird sun like symbol on it.  
"What's this?" Taichi asked.  
"There's a legend that if anything were to happen to our village, we were to escape from here!" A Koromon told us.  
"What's this symbol?" Suddenly, Taichi's chest began to glow; or rather the Tag under his shirt began to glow. Soon the whole cave began to glow in a bright orange light. Then the symbol began to shrink and turned into a Crest! "This is… a Crest!"  
"What?" I said. The Crest floated over to Taichi and inserted itself into the Tag.  
"I have a Crest!"  
"All right!"  
"Look!" Sora pointed ahead. The whole wall was gone!  
"Th-This is…" Jou dumbfounded.  
"We're inside the mountains that are far, far away from where our village is." A Koromon informed.  
"Then we're saved!"  
"Looks that way." I added.  
"Talk about luck." Ross claimed.  
"Thank goodness." Mimi exclaimed. Taichi looked at his Crest.  
"A Crest… I finally have one! As long as I have this, Etemon isn't a threat at all!" Taichi declared.

 _P.O.V. - Third Person_

Etemon was feeling proud of himself. The Chosen Children had been weakened and were now trapped in a cave. All he had to do was walk in and victory would be his.  
"Etemon-sama, the Chosen Children…!" A Gazimon called out.  
"The Chosen Children should be flying about in broken pieces by now." He boasted.  
"The Children have been abruptly transported elsewhere."  
"What?!" On the map, Etemon's location was a blue dot while the Children were red and far away from him now. "You're right… Quite unexpected to see them over there. They're resourceful, I'll give them that. I'll have to stay on my guard around those children. But that's what makes it worth killing them." He evilly laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We said our goodbyes to the Koromon and the lone Botamon. They were going to try to make the journey back to what would be left of their village. It would a long one so we wished them luck. For the rest of us, we did what we planned to do: Travel the continent in search for the Crests. They were our only hope in defeating that Elvis wannabe and hopefully, our ticket to get back home.

However, things were gonna be even more difficult from here on out…

* * *

And that was Chapter 16. What do you think?

I really got nothing to truly say after this one so next chapter will be on the 23rd or 24th. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	18. Dark Evolution! SkullGreymon!

Chapter 17, folks. Sorry I finally missed a deadline, but Hearts of Iron, Panzer Corps, and watching someone play Battlestations: Midway and Pacific, you lose the time.

Shout outs! First thank you **murakamimeow** and **ctran03931** for your faves and follows.

Now a reply to a review from long time follower **MadDogLucario96** and his review on Chapter 16. Yeah, really quick thinking from Ross but he was kinda asked by Mrs. Yagami to keep an eye on him, and prevent him from walking in on Mimi bathing is just kinda the job.

Anyways, on the next chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Dark Evolution! SkullGreymon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+15. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

The past few days had been a mess. We spent most of them getting through that mountain range that the cave had sent us and the Koromon villagers to. Thankfully, we were fine on food and water, as there was plenty in the mountains. Since late yesterday, however, we were beginning to cross through a pretty large desert. Surprisingly it wasn't as hot as most, but we really had to keep moving. For one, we wouldn't last much longer in it and two; we still had the looming threat of Etemon over us.

Etemon. That monkey really bushwhacked us. With Devimon, he needed the black gears just to give him an advantage over us. Etemon didn't need any tricks like that, his strength alone could handle us, but he still relied on his own brand of tricks. That Love Serenade attack of his, we had no hope of taking him on and we knew it. It's the reason why our morale was at one of its lowest points. Those dreams of defeating Gennai's enemies and being sent home were further than they ever had been.

"How much farther do we have to walk?" Mimi asked exhaustedly.  
"Until we find a place where Etemon can't reach us." Jou answered. Easier said than done.  
"Does such a place exist?!"  
"I hope so." Yamato said. "We have nowhere to run if Etemon attacked us now."  
" _This is bad. Everyone's getting thoroughly depressed."_ Sora thought.  
"What's this?" Taichi questioned. "Get a hold of yourselves, guys!" Here was the strange thing. While everyone's morale was pretty low, Taichi's couldn't be any better. Ever since he found his Crest, he seems to be pretty sure of himself. "We have a Crest with us now!"  
"True, but can they really evolve with just the Crest?" inquired Yamato.  
"Sure. Right, Agumon?" Agumon worriedly moaned. "Be more assertive, man! You're the only one right now who's able to evolve to the next level! You've got to stand upright for all of us on the battlefield." I think that pep talk was worrying him ever more considering the yellow dinosaur was being put on the spot.  
"We're counting on you." Tentomon was not helping.

"By the way… How do we move on to the next evolution?"  
"Well, from what we already know of the evolution process… They'll need a large amount of energy to evolve. In other words, they weren't able to evolve when they were hungry." Koushiro explained.  
"Our fight with Shellmon and Devimon's ambush proved that to be correct." I interjected.  
"Right. It also happens when their partner is in danger."  
"I see." Taichi nodded. "But about that energy thing… To evolve to a higher level, I guess you'll need more energy than ever, right?" He winked at Agumon who kinda flinched in fear. I got a bad feeling about this.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Etemon was feeling pretty good for himself but still couldn't be too happy. Though the Children were on the run and at his mercy, they managed to escape from his trackers. They were last spotted in the desert but it was a vast one and would take time. He was currently monitoring the situation from his trailer that was quickly being pulled by a Monochromon.  
"Just you wait, Chosen Children! When I find you, I'll knock you flat and stuff you like turkeys!"

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

We came along an oasis that we decided to rest at. It was welcome relief to waking in the desert. At the same time, we came to discover Taichi's brilliant plan for that whole 'energy' idea of getting our Digimon to their next levels. That idea was apparently to horde the food and stuff Agumon with it!  
"I can't eat anymore!" Agumon complained.  
"When I say you eat, you eat!" demanded Taichi as he shoved more food in to Agumon's already filled mouth. "No complaining!"  
"But…!"  
"Listen! Everyone gave you their share of food because they're looking forward to your evolution! Right, guys?"  
"Yeah…" Yamato said disinterestedly.  
"Gave it to him? More like he _took_ it from us." Mimi countered.  
"But we can't evolve to a higher level." worried Gabumon.  
"Whoever doesn't work doesn't get to eat, is that it, Taichi?" I muttered.  
"No way!" panicked Tentomon.

"What was that? I can't hear you!" Taichi shouted. "Isn't that right, guys?"  
"Yes." We answered unenthusiastically.  
"See. That's why you and I have to work hard together! We have to protect everyone!"  
"So that makes us the ones who are pulling them down." Palmon said.  
"Even so, I feel sorry for Agumon." Piyomon agreed.  
"He's not looking good right now." Guilmon added.  
"Yeah." Sora mumbled. "Agumon looks like he's being driven into a corner."  
"C'mon, eat up!" Taichi ordered.

"Ya know, during club activities during the one day we spent at camp, Taichi-san was always nice to us younger members." Koushiro remembered.  
"Now that you mention it, even in the soccer club…" Sora began telling a story back when the two of them were on a co-ed team. She talked about one game where Taichi had a perfect chance to take a shot for the goal, but then passed it over to Sora when he was about to be tackled. Sora then used the pass to head-butt the ball for a goal. So what was going on right now, this wasn't the typical Taichi. But since our lives are on the line, his mentality might be a bit different. "Taichi looks like the type who runs off on his own… but he does take in consideration of his surroundings."  
"I see."  
"But now…"  
"We're the only ones who can do it!" We heard Taichi yell at Agumon once again. "So keep it up! Eat up!"  
"No more…" Agumon fell over; his belly looking like it was ready to burst.  
"Ever since Taichi got this Crest, it's like he's different person." Sora concluded.

"It's hard for me to watch this." Ross spoke up.  
"You've been pretty quiet today, Ross." Yamato said.  
"Sorry. It's just… Look, I've known Taichi all my life. He's a good person and he's only doing what he thinks is best for the others."  
"So you agree with stuffing Agumon full of food?"  
"No, but I understand why. We don't know how to reach the Perfect-Level so he's doing trial and error… though maybe this isn't the best place to do it. He's always been like this, once he gets his mind on something, he sticks with it."  
"Is there any way you could maybe talk him out of it? I'm getting hungry." Mimi requested.  
"Sorry, Mimi-chan. There's only one person I know who might be able to talk him out of this. It's both a blessing and a curse that his little sister, Hikari, isn't here. I guess if we can't convince him to at least restrain himself with Agumon then maybe we should quickly find another Crest so he doesn't feel like he has to be the one to do everything."

"Thanks for reminding us, Mimi-chan… I'm starving…" I interrupted. As I looked down, I saw my chest beginning to flash with light. "What? Hey, look guys, my Tag!" If we found my Crest, then maybe that would cool off Taichi.  
"It's reacting to something!" Yamato observed as the Tag kept flashing a light blue color.  
"Your Crest must be nearby!" Koushiro said. Taichi obviously heard us as he had his telescope out.  
"Really?" He questioned. "There's something there. Looks like buildings. And they're big!" That's all I need to know as I took off running.  
"That's where my Crest must be!" As I was running, my foot got caught by something hidden in the dunes which sent me flat on my face once again. "What was that?" Gomamon caught up with me and grabbed a black cable.  
"What's a cable doing here?" He asked.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"STOP!" Etemon ordered. The Monochromon that was pulling his trailer slid to a halt.  
"What's the matter, Etemon-sama?" A Gazimon asked. The trailer opened up to reveal Etemon at his control panel with an excited look on his face.  
"Something got caught in the network! Area L-7… let's see… where was that?" He said to himself. "7 boxes down L, and… there it is!"  
"Where is it?"  
"It's near the Coliseum! Remember? The place where I hold a yearly concert! They ran off to such a place…"  
"Eh, it's pretty far, sir."  
"Yup. But I have an interesting show set up there."

In the said area, a Gazimon was relaxing in the shade of an umbrella and sitting in a lawn chair. For him, this was a cushy assignment as nothing really happened in his area. Until today, that is. He had a cell phone near him that began ringing. He picked it up and answered it.  
"This is the L-7 area."  
"It's me."  
"H-Hello, sir!" The Gazimon essentially snaped to attention even if the monkey was not there.  
"Some guests will be arriving there soon, so prepare a welcome party."  
"W-Welcome party? You don't mean _that_ thing…?"  
"Yup, _that_ thing."  
"U-Understood, Etemon-sama!" He heard the tone indicating the other party had hung up and took off running towards the Coliseum.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

As we approached the buildings, it was revealed that they all looked Roman in nature, or so I was told, especially the Coliseum which looked like it was just built. We followed Jou into the main structure as he believed that his Crest was somewhere inside. When we walked in, it looked a little different, as in there was a giant screen up above you'd see at sports games, and soccer field drawn into the bricks with two goals at either end.

"It really does look like the Roman Coliseum!" awed Koushiro.  
"What's that?" Tentomon wondered.  
"A stadium from ancient times." Taichi answered.  
"Located in Rome, the capital and heart of the Roman Empire. It held host to a number of events and venues. Above all events were the gladiatorial fights where men would fight to the death for the amusement of crowds." Ross gave a quick history lesson.  
"There's a widescreen!" pointed out Mimi.  
"And a goal post!" Sora added. "This is a soccer field!"  
"Well, let's all split up and look for the Crest." Taichi said as poor Agumon fell on his backside due to all the food he had been stuffed with. "What's wrong?"  
"I can't move." He explained. "Let me sleep a little…"  
"What's wrong with you? Get up!"  
"Sorry…"

"Let him rest." Jou informed. "The only clue we have is this Tag. Gomamon and I will go look, so take a break, guys!"  
"I'll go with you!" Taichi followed Jou and Gomamon as they ran off from us. During the break, we saw there was a familiar looking object at the center of the field.  
"A soccer ball!" Sora exclaimed. "Hey, want to play?" She asked us.  
"That sounds fun!" I said.  
"Let's make it the human team versus the Digimon team!" Yamato suggested.  
"What's soccer?" Tentomon questioned.  
"It's when you use your legs to kick this ball into the goal. You can use your head or chest too." Sora explained the rules before kicking the ball towards Gabumon.  
"Here I come!" He kicked the ball that landed and bounced off of Piyomon who wasn't paying attention and then was caught in Palmon's hands.  
"You can't use your hands." Sora said.  
"Don't you think that's really unfair for me?" She questioned.  
"The goalkeeper can use their hands, right?" I gave an idea for Palmon.  
"Yeah. You're perfect as the goalkeeper, Palmon." Yamato agreed.

"Take that!" Palmon threw the ball. Taichi seemingly came out of nowhere and kicked the ball so hard we lost it in the stands.  
"The kick is up, and it's good!" Ross jokingly cheered with both his arms held up.  
"How the hell can you guys be playing soccer at a time like this?" Taichi angrily demanded. "Think about what we're dealing with right now! We're leaving right after Jou finds his Crest!" Jou and Gomamon were nearby one of the goals, still looking.  
"Are you getting any reaction?" Gomamon asked.  
"It should be around here…" Jou muttered. Suddenly the whole place began to swell with the Charge music you'd hear at a baseball game. We saw the screen had turned on and a pair of hands was clapping on it before we heard the last voice we wanted to hear.  
"I am the greatest!" Etemon announced as his image appeared on the screen. Mimi took off running.  
"He's here!" She shouted. The rest of us followed her as we ran to Jou and Gomamon who were in the goal.  
"Wait, you guys!" Agumon yelled out but all the food was slowing him down.  
"Agumon!" Taichi called out but the whole goal collapsed in front of us, trapping us inside.

"Goal!" Etemon cried. "Now I've got you!"  
"It was a trap!" Taichi announced.  
"You think you can keep us in here with just this?" Tentomon said as he flew into the net.  
"No, wait, Tentomon-!" Guilmon warned as Tentomon was electrocuted as he touched the net and was blown back into some of the others, knocking them down.  
"Oh, you'll injure yourself if you do that!" Etemon bragged. "After all, that net has electricity running through its wires! I'd love to be there face-to-face, but unfortunately, I'm too far away for that. Stars have busy schedules, you know! But don't worry! There's a special guest who'll be taking my place! Who do you think it is?" I don't know, but if Etemon is sending him, then that's not going to be very good for us.  
"Who cares?!" dismissed Taichi.  
"I'm sure he'll surprise you! Yeah yeah yeah!" At the other end of the building, the inner wall broke away to reveal a very familiar dinosaur.  
"A G-Greymon!" The only difference with this Greymon was that there was a cable around his neck.  
"See, you _are_ surprised. I'm such a fabulous show producer! Now let's begin! It's showtime!" The hostile Greymon crushed the other net under his feet, and we knew he was planning to do that to the other goal.

"Evolve, Agumon!" ordered Taichi.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" The two orange dinosaurs charged at one another and put their hands in each other shoulders in an attempt to throw around the other. Our Greymon had an opening and head-butted the Etemon one but it countered by whipping its tail at Greymon's stomach which caused him pain.  
"You can do it, Greymon!" Gabumon encouraged.  
"Don't lose to a fake!" I cheered. The battle turned bad when the fake head-butted Greymon and sent him flying towards our goal! When he collided, the electricity activated and began electrocuting him. After a moment, he fell over on the ground.  
"Evolve, Greymon!" Taichi ordered once again.  
"He can't keep this up!" Koushiro informed.  
"He'll be killed if he doesn't evolve!" Tentomon worried.

Greymon got back up and charged once again, but the fake grabbed him by the horns, threw him to the ground and began stomping on him.  
"Evolve! Greymon! Evolve!" Taichi just kept asking for the same thing but it wasn't happening.  
"It's no use, Taichi-san." Koushiro tried to tell him. "Your Crest isn't showing a reaction at all."  
"You're clearly not doing something right." insisted Ross.  
"Evolving is impossible." Yamato summed up.  
"I won't believe that!" Taichi stubbornly said. "Greymon, I know you can do it! Believe in your ability to evolve!" Greymon heard that and got the fake off him by a quick swing of his tail. "All right, Greymon! Do a Mega Flame!" He tried to launch his powerful flame attack but ended up burping.  
"How can you be burping at a time like this?" Mimi asked.  
"Don't his movements look a lot slower than usual?" observed Yamato.  
"I get it. His body is heavy from eating too much!" Koushiro concluded.  
"You're right!" Tentomon agreed before he accidently flew into the net again.

The fake was now dragging Greymon along the ground by his tail. Greymon's lack of speed and exhaustion meant he was at the fake's mercy.  
"G-Greymon!" Taichi cried out. The fake began spinning Greymon around by the tail like the final boss battle of Mario 64 with the fake being Mario and Greymon being Bowser. He let go and Greymon was sent crashing into the wall.  
"Looks like this will end sooner than I thought!" Etemon proclaimed on the screen before he started to laugh again. The fake grabbed Greymon again and now it was just looking like it was wrestling.  
"Look out!" Gomamon warned. "Marching Fishes!" To our complete surprise, fishes began flying out of the stature and appeared to have found some fireworks that they used on the fake Greymon. They caused him to turn his attention towards them and away from Greymon.  
"How were fishes able to come out from there?!" Jou wondered.  
"Don't look at me… I don't get complicated stuff…"  
"It's probably because there's a rift in another dimension over there." Koushiro said.  
"What he said."  
"Oh." Jou settled. The fishes had done their job in buying Greymon some time to regroup.

"Thank you, fishes!" Sora thanked. "Let's escape now that we have a chance!"  
"How about digging out of here?" Koushiro suggested as he, myself and Yamato lifted one of the stones that was part of the floor.  
"Good idea." Yamato said.  
"There's a black cable here too." Koushiro pointed out the wire that was beneath us.  
"On no, this rock is in the way." Tentomon added. The said rock had a strange looking symbol. It was a cross with long triangles on the side of top and bottom part of the cross. Jou's Tag began glowing again.  
"It's reacting!" He exclaimed. "Could this rock be my Crest? If that really is the case, then…" He placed the Tag on the ground and the whole rock began to glow bright blue before it started to shrink and turn into his Crest! This caused the ground to give in on us and sent us crashing into the basement of the Coliseum. "All right! My Crest!" Jou cheered. Tentomon flew up a bit and found our way out.  
"A tunnel! We can get out of here!"

As we got out, we could hear that Etemon wasn't happy. We knew because he clearly left his intercom on.  
"Those damn children! Not only did they escape, but they have another Crest! Completely unforgivable!" As for the fighting involving the two Greymons, our Greymon was losing the fight bad.  
"He'll win if he evolved." Taichi muttered to himself. "If he could just evolve… Greymon!" Taichi began to try and climb over the wall but Ross and Sora grabbed him.  
"Wait!" Sora said.  
"Taichi, it's too dangerous!" Ross worried.  
"Don't stop me, you two! This is my chance to get Greymon to evolve! Please, just get out of my way!"  
"But your Crest isn't reacting at all!"  
"It's impossible to make him evolve!" added Sora.  
"He will evolve! No, I'll _make_ him!" He jumped down.  
"What is he trying to do?" Yamato questioned.  
"The other condition needed for evolution is for the partner to be in danger. Taichi-san, he can't be…!" Koushiro was horrified. Taichi planed on throwing himself into serious danger all in an attempt to get Greymon to evolve once more.

"It's time to finish this!" Etemon announced. "End it with a Mega Flame!" The fake Greymon began to build a fire in his mouth.  
"Stop!" The Greymon was distracted by this and launched his fire towards the statue where the fishes came out of and destroyed it. "I'm not scared of you." Taichi declared. "Try and come after me!" The fake Greymon turned around and stared Taichi down.  
"Trying to act tough, are we? Very well! We'll finish you off first, just as you wish!" The fake began marching towards the goggle wearing boy.  
"Piyomon, help Taichi!"  
"Okay."  
"You too, Gabumon!"  
"Gotcha!"  
"Guilmon…"  
"Say no more!" The three respective Digimon jumped onto the wall and began to evolve to help save Taichi from his crazy plan.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" The three of them quickly went over and surrounded Taichi in a defensive posture from the bad Greymon.

"Greymon!" Taichi called out the fallen dinosaur. "I… believe in you!" Greymon got back up. "Evolve, Greymon!" Suddenly, the sky began to darken above us and these orange and black rings soon began descending on Greymon. He then began to glow like fire and started to get bigger. Had Taichi actually got him to evolve? Well, I guess he did, but something wasn't right. For starters, Greymon had now turned in to a giant white skeletal dinosaur with the only flesh on him being this giant organic looking missile on his back; and there also was his large heart that residing in his ribcage. The whole thing screamed bad news.  
"That's…" Sora was dumbfounded.  
"Is that really his Perfect form?" Ross wondered.  
"What's going on?" Yamato asked.  
"No way!" Tentomon screamed. "That's SkullGreymon!"  
"SkullGreymon?" Sora questioned.  
"His menacing appearance reduces many Digimon to a quaking heap. Naturally, he has immensely destructive power, especially with his organic missile, Ground Zero! He is a Perfect-Level Digimon who attacks persistently in battle!" Tentomon explained.

"Th-This is bad!" Koushiro tried to spit it out. "It looks like things went wrong and he evolve into something unbelievable!" SkullGreymon roared in response.  
" _This is… Greymon's evolved form…"_ Taichi thought. Tentomon was right about that 'quaking heap' thing because the fake Greymon turned tail and ran away. SkullGreymon, clearly remembering that he was getting thrown around earlier, swatted the fake in to the big screen that broke and began electrocuting him. But SkullGreymon wasn't done. He launched the missile from his back that crashed into the screen, destroying not only the screen but Etemon's Greymon as well.  
"SkullGreymon! Did you really evolve from Greymon?" Taichi questioned. The large skeleton said nothing but turned around and looked back towards his partner.  
"Run, Taichi!" Yamato yelled. Taichi took off and was nearly crushed under the giant boney foot of SkullGreymon. It was obvious that he wasn't listing to him now. The three Adult-Level Digimon charged towards SkullGreymon in an attempt to get Taichi to escape but they were all quickly swept away.  
"I'll help hold him down!" Tentomon declared.  
"We're counting on you, Tentomon!" Koushiro called out.  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" SkullGreymon merely stared down the large blue bug before fear set in. "No good!" Kabuterimon flew away. We all stared in terror at the unstoppable Digimon.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The sheer power of SkullGreymon and the damage he was causing wasn't just affecting the Coliseum. The destruction and the tearing apart of many wires that connected the Dark Network was also causing problems across Etemon's mighty empire.  
"The network!" He shouted. He had been getting nothing but static on his screen since his Greymon was tossed into the screen at the Coliseum. "My network is ruined!" The computer in front of him began shooting out electrical discharges as he had to duck to avoid being fried. He could only scream.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

SkullGreymon picked up the goal that we had been trapped in and threw it at us, forcing us to flee in multiple directions to avoid being crushed by it.  
"Meteor Wing!" "Fox Fire!" "Exhaust Flame!" "Mega Blaster!" All four Digimon launched their attacks but all it did was just bounce off the skeleton. He was too powerful for all of us… heck, he might be even more powerful than Etemon. Too bad he's uncontrollable and mindless, refusing to listen or even acknowledge his allies and friends. The Digimon were knocked away by the raging beast before he suddenly tore his way through the Coliseum and ran out into the desert, knocking down everything in his path. We all chased after him, trying not to lose him when he suddenly stopped and began to expel black smoke out of him before glowing bright with light and shrinking.

"What happened?" Koushiro asked.  
"Maybe he ran out of energy!" Tentomon suggested. We ran to his spot and found Koromon lying in the sand looking terrible.  
"He turned back into Koromon." Takeru said. Taichi slid down the dune and picked up Koromon.  
"Are you okay?" He questioned.  
"Yeah…" Koromon muttered. "But… It looks like I did something terrible to you guys. I couldn't even stop myself…"  
"Don't worry about it." Piyomon assured.  
"That's right." chimed in Gabumon.  
"No real harm done." Guilmon added.  
"We understand!" Tentomon finished.

"I'm sorry I couldn't rise to your expectations…" Koromon said to Taichi. That's what he was worried about? Talk about loyalty.  
"No, it's not your fault!" Yamato shouted. "It's…"  
"I know. It's my fault." Taichi answered with regret in his voice.  
"That's not what I meant…"  
"It's okay. It's true, right Sora?"  
Yeah…" She quickly doubled back. "I-I mean…!" I walked up and put my arm around his shoulder. He really looked like he just needs it.  
"Look, you just did what you thought was for the greater good of all of us." I told him.  
"I know, but I was rushing ahead without even realizing it. Because I had the Crest, I felt like I had to fight the battles on my own. I'm sorry, guys." He lifted up Koromon. "I'm sorry." He apologized to the pink Baby-Level Digimon. Koromon could only smile. It looks like he wasn't gonna hold it against him. We all sighed and began walking away from the ruins of SkullGreymon's rampage. Though we had reached the next level of evolution, apparently it was a mistake and we were back to square one. But at least, we learned a lesson from this; that we shouldn't try to force an evolution less we get a similar result.

As we walked away, moral low once again even with Jou finding his Crest, we wondered, what was it going to take for us to figure out how to get our Digimon to evolve the right way…

* * *

And that was Chapter 17.

Alright, I've got some plans for the future of this story, much further down the road but I'm still gonna hold a poll for it on my profile. It's kinda vague but you should be able to figure it out. If not just PM.

Okay, next chapter coming on the 26th or 27th, I'll try to make the deadline this time. Until then, take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	19. The Illusionary Ship's Captain!

Chapter 18! Sorry for being late again, but I had computer crashes and losing internet connection which crippled me completely as I need it to watch the episodes.

Anyways, shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his review. Nah, the whole Taichi power trip I feel is around the corner.

Anyways, here is the next chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 18: The Illusionary Ship's Captain! Cockatrimon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+16. Midday.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

Walking. That seems to be all that we're doing now a days. After the catastrophe of what we were beginning to call a Dark Evolution, we kept on moving through the desert, hopeful to find a way to get away from Etemon. The day before, our morale was low except for Taichi's; today, his morale I feel was even lower after what had happened. Taichi was really beating himself up for what had happened. I don't blame him though. If we had found my Crest first, I'd probably do the same or perhaps something similar. The only real good news was that we did manage to find Jou's Crest, but we were still stuck in the same place on figuring out how to get our Digimon to evolve further without the whole uncontrollable monster with the firepower that could outclass a battleship.

We had been walking through much of the desert again today with nothing in sight except for cactuses and sand. To make matters worse, it was much hotter in this part of the desert than the one where the Coliseum resided.  
"Sora… Are you okay?" concerned Piyomon.  
"I'll manage."  
"Koushiro-han… D-Don't get d-discourage." Tentomon was so tired he couldn't even say a sentence without stuttering.  
"Y-Yeah."  
"Yamato…" Gabumon moaned.  
"You should worry about yourself more. You must be sweltering under all of that fur."  
"I'll be fine."  
"Hey, Ross? When do we rest?" Guilmon questioned our next stop.  
"Soon, Guilmon, soon."  
"Jou, want to take a break?" Gomamon asked.  
"No, let's try our best and go a little farther."  
"Takeru, fight-o!" Tokomon said while riding on the top of the young blonde's hat.  
"Fight-o…" Takeru muttered.

"Koromon, I'm sorry. It's my fault you turned back into Koromon." Taichi could see that Koromon was looking worse for wear thanks to this heat and he blamed himself yet again.  
"Taichi-san." Mimi spoke up. "No matter how regretful you feel, there's nothing you can do about it now."  
"Mimi-chan."  
"You've got to keep your spirits up for Koromon's sake too!" Wow, words of wisdom involving fighting spirit coming from Mimi. Every day, someone in this group surprises me. Taichi nodded in approval and understanding of Mimi's advice. "Still, it's really hot."  
"I'm worried about how long Koromon can endure this."  
"I want to become a huge Togemon… And give shade to everyone…" Palmon wished as she began daydreaming, probably about what she just said.  
"Palmon!" Mimi snapped her out of her daydream. "Look!" Right in front of us stood a giant cactus!  
"A giant cactus!" We all exclaimed.  
"All right, guys! Let's relax in the shade!" Taichi suggested.

We all broke into a dead sprint trying to get into the shade of the cactus as soon as possible.  
"I want to become a cactus as big as that one!" Palmon shouted. However, when we got close to it, the truth was soon unfortunately revealed.  
"Huh?" Taichi said. We looked at the ground and came to the same conclusion.  
"It doesn't have a shadow!" We all yelled.  
"I-It was a mirage…" muttered Yamato. We all fell to our knees in disappointment.  
"Chosen Children!" A voice called out. We all looked around for the source of the voice. "Oh, Chosen Children!" The ground opened up in front of us to reveal a holographic projector meaning that voice was Gennai. Sure enough, his hologram appeared before us.  
"Gennai!" We all said.

"Hey, Gramps!" Taichi began chewing the old man out. "I got the Tag and Crest just like you said, put them together and fought the bad guy, but he didn't evolve at all! What's more, poor Agumon degenerated into Koromon!"  
"I don't want the Crest!" Mimi shouted.  
"Calm down, Chosen Children." Gennai calmly responded. "The Crests will become yours someday, whether you like it or not. Both the Tag and Crest will naturally light each other up." We were all confused by what he just said.  
"No way." Mimi cried.  
"Let me explain why Agumon degenerated into Koromon. Even with both the Tag and Crest on you, unless you raise your Digimon correctly…"  
"Raise them correctly?" Taichi interrupted.  
"Yes. Unless you give them good upbringing, they won't evolve the right way."  
"How do we raise them the right way, then?"  
"Chosen Children." The image began to flicker meaning we were going to lose the connection to him in the next few moments. "When thinking about giving appropriate care…"  
"Gennai!" The image died and we were left alone once again.

"Damn that old fart!" Taichi cursed. "Everything he says is confusing!" Sheesh, he almost as bad as Yoda when it comes to vague advice.  
"He mentioned good upbringing." Piyomon started to talk to Gabumon.  
"Are we being brought up the right way, though?"  
"Gabumon! Wait a second!" Yamato was quick to try and not get blamed for anything that may not have been his fault.  
"I'm… not confident I can do it." Koushiro despaired.  
"Wait, wait, Koushiro-han. What do you think you're saying?"  
"Ross…" Guilmon began.  
"I don't know, I thought we were doing fine, but now…"  
"What about me?" Gomamon asked Jou.  
"I also don't have a shred of confidence I can do it. Self-confidence at zero percent."  
"Hey, hey." Our despair was interrupted when we heard the sound of what sounded like a ship's horn.

As it turned out, coming right towards us was a large ship that was sailing in the sand.  
"It's a battleship!" Taichi guessed.  
"No… It's a luxury cruise ship!" corrected Sora.  
"Why is a cruise ship sailing through the desert?!" Jou questioned.  
"I stopped questioning this place a while back, Jou-san!" I informed him.  
"Is that a mirage too?" Takeru asked.  
"No it's not!" Yamato shouted as we all ran out of the way. The ship pulled up and then stopped near us.  
"Nume." Two familiar eyestalks popped up over the side.  
"Numemon!" Mimi said. Koromon made a sound that sounded like he was getting worse. We need to rest now.  
"Numemon! Please, let us rest on your ship!" Taichi requested.  
"Nume…" The little green sailor didn't seem that keen to letting us on board.  
"Let me handle the Numemon." offered Mimi. "Numemon! We're very tired! Could you let us rest ourselves for a while on this luxury ship? Pl-ea-se." She turned on the charm to eleven. I can now see why some Digimon have become enamored with her like the Numemon, Sukamon, and Chuumon. She can be downright gorgeous. Mama, your only son might have a crush on a girl.  
"Nu…Nume!" The Numemon had hearts in his eyes and he very quickly let down the draw ramp. We didn't wait for a second before we ran aboard.

As we got inside the ship, the inner workings of it looked… disturbingly familiar.  
"It looks like a first class hotel!" Mimi cheered.  
"More like looks like the Titanic. I mean, look! This is exactly replica of the grand staircase!" I informed.  
"So, should we be worried in that this is gonna sink?" Sora asked.  
"Nah, a few quick evolutions and we could safely get off if this thing if it sank in the sand." Yamato assured.  
"So what now?" Koushiro asked.  
"I say we split up, see what this ship has."  
"Well, I'm gonna find a shower. Heaven knows I've needed one." Mimi said.  
"I'll come with." Sora followed Mimi and their respective Digimon followed close behind.  
"Hey, Takeru, Koushiro. Let's see if we can find some food." Yamato insisted and the three of them and their Digimon walked away.  
"You guys wanna find the pool?" Taichi suggested. Jou and I nodded as we headed towards the rear deck.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

After searching the decks for a few minutes, we finally found a room with a shower in it. Mimi and I wasted almost no time in disrobing in order to hop into a nice comfortable shower, especially after walking for so long.  
"I want to shower!" "Me too!" "I want a shower quickly!" "I wonder if they have fountains!" "I hope so!" "Oh, it's been so long!" "Wait for me, Sora!" "Palmon, hurry up!"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi_

It was believed that due to the ship being manned by the Numemon, surely there was some food somewhere. We really didn't expect a feast to be laid out in one of the dining rooms however. The food before us was amazing and so mouthwatering.  
"This food looks fantastic. It does." Yamato said.  
"I… want to eat it." Takeru muttered.  
"W-We shouldn't eat it without telling anyone!" I tried to get the others to think about this before we should dig in.  
"But it sure looks good." Yamato countered. Tentomon's stomach growled.  
"I'm so hungry I think I'll die."  
"Me too." Gabumon joined in.  
"Me too." Tokomon also said. My stomach began to growl as well. Well, no choice now.  
"It would be rude to the cooks if we let the food they made grow cold, right?" I insisted. Everyone nodded. "Let's eat!"  
"Yeah!" They all cheered as we began to dig in.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Sure enough as Taichi suggested, we discovered two pools on the stern of the ship. We didn't have any swim trunks with us so we were just floating on some pool rafts in our shorts. Koromon was sitting on a table under a porch umbrella with our stuff by him; Gomamon was swimming in the pool, and Guilmon was sitting on the steps, waist deep in the water.  
"Hey, what do you guys think Gennai meant when he told us to raise our Digimon correctly?" Taichi asked.  
"No idea. At least we _intend_ to care for them properly…" Jou said.  
"I tell you guys this. These Crests have become more trouble than their worth." I informed.  
"Yeah, but if we don't have them, then our Digimon can't evolve higher and take on Etemon; and if we can't do that, then we'll never go home."  
"This is all just too much right now. Let's just stop thinking about this and relax." insisted Taichi.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

On a deck above the pool that a few of the Chosen Children were relaxing in, they were being watched by a human captain from above.  
"Chosen Children… Your fates…" His skin began to crawl until he exploded to reveal he was a large shape shifting white chicken with a black Mohawk and red tipped feathers on his tail similar to a peacock. "…are in the hands of Cockatrimon bawk!" He walked over to the bridge and went up to a computer screen. "Just in case, I'll report this to Etemon-sama and ask him what I should do with them bakawk." The large ship was attached to black cable meaning it was a part of Etemon's Dark Network that he used to rule over the land.

At Etemon's trailer, the attack by SkullGreymon the day before had caused all sorts of problems for Etemon and his network. He couldn't get into contact with his subordinates nor could he keep track of the Chosen Children.  
"You useless twerps! Hurry up and fix my network!" He yelled at the Gazimon who were preforming the necessary maintenance to try and restore the network. "Who do you think I am? I am the King of Digimon, Etemon-sama! Got a problem with that?" The three Gazimon stopped their work to quickly bow before the monkey.  
"None at all!" The lights in the trailer switched on as Etemon began another one of his performances.  
"YEAH! Who's the strongest in the world? That's me! Wahoo!" He sang. The Gazimon began preforming moves that would fit the role of background dancers, until Etemon smacked them all in the head. "Who told you to dance?! Don't just sit there crouching and holding your heads!" The grey canines went back to work.

Back at the cruise ship, Cockatrimon was only getting static on his screen, unaware of what had happened the day before.  
"That's odd bawk. I can't contact Etemon-sama." He then walked over to a nearby speaker port. "No other choice. I'll just get rid of them bawk." He spoke through the speaker port to the Numemon working below the decks. "You Numemon bawking part-time! I'll raise your pay rate up to a pretty little sum for anyone who captures the Chosen Children bakawk!" The Numemon didn't need to hear any more of that before they went to work.

At the pool, the Numemon snuck up and threw a net that captured the three boys who were lounging.  
"Jou!" "Ross!" "Taichi!" Their respective Digimon called out.  
"What's this all of a sudden?!" Jou wanted an answer.  
"Let us go, you filthy traitors!" demanded Ross.  
"Numemon! What the heck are you doing?" Taichi asked. The Numemon tried to net both Guilmon and Gomamon but failed. Guilmon merely used his claws to slice the net that had tried to capture him while Gomamon used his Marching Fishes attack to cut his net before he jumped out of the pool.

Two Numemon approached Koromon who had the Tags next to him.  
"Don't touch Koromon!" Taichi yelled.  
"Taichi! Koromon, evolve! AGUMON!"  
"Agumon!" The Numemon quickly panicked and pulled back when Agumon attacked them with a Baby Flame… only for it to be deflected by Cockatrimon who decided that the Numemon were taking too long with their attempts.  
"You're…" Gomamon cried out.  
"Cockatrimon!" Guilmon finished.  
"Petrifier!" Cockatrimon yelled as his eyes glowed green before a ray of energy shot out and turned the three Digimon into stone! The three boys were shocked.  
"Agumon!" "Guilmon" "Gomamon!" Cockatrimon then walked over to the table and took the two Tags with Crests that sat on it, leaving Ross' alone.  
"I'll be taking these bakawk!" Cockatrimon laughed and bawked as he walked away leaving the boys at the hands of the Numemon.

At around the same time, the Numemon were making move on attempting to apprehend the other three Chosen Children boys that were in the dining hall. Their Digimon were trying to hold back the large amount of the green slugs.  
"Petit Fire!" "Petit Thunder!" Gabumon and Tentomon attacked while Tokomon launched a bubble at the Numemon sailors. The attacks force them to back off but it was at this moment that Cockatrimon reached the hall. The Chosen Digimon turned to see their new guest but it was sadly too late for them.  
"Petrifier!" Just like Agumon, Gomamon, and Guilmon, the three Digimon were turned to stone as well to the horror of the humans.  
"Gabumon!" "Tentomon!" "Tokomon!" With no Digimon to protect them, the Numemon dragged them away. Now there were only two children left for Cockatrimon.

As he walked into one of the rooms where it was thought the girls were, Cockatrimon saw that the Numemon had no luck in finding them.  
"Where are the other Chosen Children?"  
"They're not here." A Numemon informed.  
"What?" He then heard the sound of a shower running and walked over to the bathroom where he knocked the door down… only to find it empty and the window opened. He looked out it to see the deck boards were wet underneath it meaning that the girls had climbed out to escape him.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Thank goodness for Piyomon's hearing. While we were in the shower, Piyomon heard the room being ransacked by the Numemon which meant this was probably yet another trap. This was one of the more awkward ones as we did have an escape route through the window, but our clothes were in the room. We climbed out and began running away with nothing on but a towel we tightly clutched. Who knows what happened to the others but we needed to find them quickly. Unfortunately, it looked like whoever commanded the Numemon suddenly appeared in front of us on the side deck.

"Here you are!" The giant chicken bawked.  
"Cockatrimon!" Both Palmon and Piyomon cried out.  
"Is he one of Etemon's minions?" Sora asked.  
"I think so!" Piyomon answered. Cockatrimon merely laughed and bawked as I got a good look at what he was holding.  
"Those are Taichi-san and Jou-senpai's Crests!" I informed.  
"I've captured the other six Chosen Children and put them out to fry in the sun bakawk! Keep them out there for a while, and I'll have dried and crunchy Chosen Children bawk!"  
"That's terrible!"  
"What about their Digimon?" inquired Piyomon.  
"I've turned them into stones with my power bakawk. I can use them to boil some yummy soup bawk."  
"Unbelievable!" Palmon was shocked as the rest of us.  
"Don't worry, you'll be joining them." He laughed again.

"You're unforgivable!" Piyomon then jumped up. "Magical Fire!" Cockatrimon jumped as well to avoid the attack.  
"Poison Ivy!" The chicken merely swatted away the vines.  
"Petrifier!" We ran away before that attack could hit us. We could hear him following close behind. We kept running until we hit a dead end because we ran to the bow of the ship. We were too high up to jump down safely.  
"Now you're trapped bakawk!" He claimed. He was right… except we had a bit of a secret weapon of ours. We pulled out our Digivices and suddenly, his eyes went wide.

"Piyomon, time to evolve!"  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" Birdramon began flying high above the ship to the shock and envy of Cockatrimon.  
"Sh-She's flying!"  
"Meteor Wing!" He jumped back in order to avoid being fried by the attack.  
"Why you…"  
"It looks like Cockatrimon can't fly!" Well, he is a large chicken. With him distracted, now it was my turn.  
"Palmon! Now's your chance!" She nodded.  
"Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!"  
"Meteor Wing!" The attack made him back up once again and lose his grip on the Tags that fell to the deck floor.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" The wave of needles sent out pummeled the chicken and distracted him before Togemon went up and gave a huge right hook and then a left uppercut that sent him flying into the front smokestack. It then shot off fire and smoke, signaling that we had roasted him.  
"All right!" I cheered as we picked up the Tags.

With Cockatrimon defeated, we quickly ran back to our room and got our clothes. Then we went to rescue the others but found that they had escaped thanks to Agumon and Guilmon. With Cockatrimon destroyed, his Petrifier influence had faded. After about thirty minutes, we were all back together again with all our stuff. At the same time, the Numemon decided sailing was not for them and got off the ship.  
"The Numemon are escaping in a panic." Taichi observed.  
"That must mean it's dangerous to stay on this ship." Koushiro theorized.  
"Let's hurry up and get off here!" Sora suggested.  
"Yeah!" Taichi agreed as we all followed the Numemon off of the ship and back into the desert.

After simply fifteen minutes, we were already tired of walking through the desert once again.  
"I'm roasting…" I moaned. Suddenly we heard the ship's horn once again and turned around to see the massive thing on a fast course for us! We all panicked and began running once again. Thankfully the ship wasn't too fast but we couldn't keep running forever.  
"Did Cockatrimon come back to life?" Yamato asked.  
"No way!" Taichi yelled.  
"Guess you girls just didn't finish him!" Ross concluded. We kept running and running but the ship was beginning to close in on us. We soon saw in front of us a giant cactus.  
"A giant cactus?" Palmon questioned, we both still remember what happened earlier. "Is it another mirage?!"  
"No, it has a shadow!" Taichi cheered. We all ran towards it and took cover behind it. The ship ran headlong into it before it fell on it. Pieces of the smokestack fell apart before the cactus stood straight up again and launched the whole ship sky high. The ship at the rudders was connected to a black wire that snapped and exploded, destroying the whole ship and Cockatrimon with it. Probably, I doubt that chicken could survive that massive explosion.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"It… wasn't a mirage!" Mimi muttered about the cactus.  
"It's a real giant cactus!" Palmon said. As the sun began to set, the top of the cactus began to glow. Soon, a flower appeared on top and started to bloom. We were in awe at the sight. The flower opened up and revealed a large stone with a symbol that was shaped like a tear drop with two circles in it.  
"What is that?" Mimi asked. It turned downward towards us.  
"It's a Crest!" Taichi answered. Mimi's Tag began to float out of her dress and started to glow green indicating that this was in fact her Crest. The stone began to glow green as well and shrank before it locked itself into her Tag.  
"So this is what Gennai-san meant when he said… The Tag and Crest light each other up!" Sora reminded.  
"I didn't want this… Will I be able to bring Palmon up properly?"  
"Mi… Mimi…" Palmon tried to say something to her but really couldn't find the words. We walked off with sun setting in front of us in search for a place to camp, our moods remained sour.

The thought remained, what exactly did Gennai mean by taking proper care…

* * *

And that was Chapter 18! Next one will involve one of my favorite Digimon Allies.

Anyways, next one I will try to publish on the 30th. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	20. The Fairy! Piccolomon!

Chapter 19! I am so, so sorry for being so late, but my body decided to have a severe migraine that crippled my writing output.

During said downtime, I discovered the YouTube channel of UrinatingTree, who I swear I haven't laughed as hard about sports in quite some time, like when he was talking about the Toronto Raptors getting swept by the Cavs this year. "Don't act surprised, they do this every year. They tease you with a great season, then come playoff time, they become the closest thing to property that doesn't violate the 13th Amendment."

Anyways, sorry again for the delay. Here we go.

* * *

 **Chapter 19: The Fairy! Piccolomon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+19. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

The next few days after the cruise ship and Cockatrimon were uneventful. It was just more walking and moving from oasis to oasis in finding food and water in the vast deserts of Server Continent. Mimi was still worried about her recently acquired Crest, still feeling torn apart on those words that Gennai had told us. By the morning of our twentieth day in the Digital World, it all seemed pretty calm. We had breakfast at a small oasis and then headed west. Taichi and Agumon were far in front of the group being on point. The good news about today's travel was the weather was much nicer for us with a strong wind that was very cool.

"Nice weather we're having!" Taichi announced.  
"The wind feels great!" Agumon approved. The rest of our group was more focused on the Crest situation rather than the weather.  
"I have a Crest now, but…" Mimi looked at her Crest.  
"We still don't know how to use them." mumbled Jou.  
"How do we raise our Digimon the right way?" Sora asked.  
"I still say the old man is wrong. We're doing a fine job taking care of our Digimon. We'll figure out the Crests soon enough." I said.  
"But wait, we haven't found all of the Crests yet." Yamato reminded. That's right, we're still missing mine, his, Koushiro's, Sora's, and Takeru's.  
"You're right." Koushiro agreed. "We should hold our thoughts on this until all of us have gotten them."

"Hey!" Taichi called out from ahead. "What are you doing?"  
"Hurry up!" Agumon added.  
"You'll get left behind!" He wouldn't dare leave us if he couldn't help it. I wouldn't let him.  
"We're holding a really important conference meeting on the Digimon right now!" Takeru informed. I almost laughed. 'Conference meeting?' What are we? Shareholders? "We'll be right there, so just wait a minute, okay?"  
"Okay?" Tokomon chimed. Taichi and Agumon looked at each other for a moment and had smiles on their faces, looking like they were gonna laugh. Suddenly, the ground opened up beneath them!  
"Wh-What is this?!" Taichi shouted. Our answer came in the form of a disturbing sight as a familiar red stag beetle appeared out of the sand with Taichi and Agumon hanging off his pincers before being thrown away.  
"It's Kuwagamon!" Koushiro remembered. This Kuwagamon looked a little different as he was slight bigger than the one on File Island so it's safe to assume this was not the same one looking for payback. Still, a rampaging Kuwagamon remains bad news for us.

Kuwagamon was standing above Agumon who quickly pulled himself out of the sand and began launching a counterattack.  
"Baby Flame!" The shot hit the bug on the top of his head and distracted him, but it was going to take some heavier firepower to stop that beetle. "H-H-He's much stronger than the one back on File Island!" Agumon expressed his fears.  
"Agumon! Evolve! Evolve right now!" consoled Gabumon.  
"If… If he makes a mistake evolving this time…" worried Taichi. He was clearly thinking back to the SkullGreymon incident a few days ago.  
"If I end up not turning into Greymon…" That fear was also shared by Agumon.  
"Agumon!" Taichi charged straight towards Kuwagamon and Agumon.  
"What are you doing? You're dead if he gets you with his Scissor Arms!" Gomamon reminded.  
"Get out of there, Agumon!" Guilmon shouted. Agumon just closed his eyes in fear as Kuwagamon chomped down with his pincers. Thankfully, Taichi shoved him out of the way before he could be killed but that now put the two of them in danger.

"Agumon!"  
"Taichi!" Kuwagamon chomped down and was about to slice the two of them in half! Sora screamed in terror before a weird sound filled the air. It sounded like a fast moving projectile.  
"Pit Bomb!" Kuwagamon stopped mid chomp and disintegrated into dust leaving Taichi and Agumon unharmed. We all ran towards Taichi and Agumon who were now buried in much of the sand.  
"Wh-What just happened?" He questioned. The answer came walking in front of them. This was a very small Digimon who possessed a spear, had a pink body, and large white wings. If I didn't know any better, I'd mistake him for pixie or a fairy.  
"Pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi" It said after each small step.  
"Looks like you're in one piece." Sora said to Taichi.  
"You okay?" I asked.  
"Where's Kuwagamon?" wondered Jou.  
"Who is that? He's kinda weird." Takeru curiously asked about the strange pink creature.  
"Pi!" He turned around. "You greenhorns!" Piyomon ran in front of us.

"You're Piccolomon!" Mimi snuck up behind and picked up the fairy.  
"He's cute." Mimi claimed. Yeah, he is… until he stabs you with that spear, Mimi. I'd put him back down.  
"I've heard of him. Piccolomon is a Fairy Digimon who brandishes his favorite spear, Fairy Tale, and wields a strange magic. His attack Bit Bomb is quite powerful." Piyomon explained. Bit Bomb? But he called a Pit Bomb. Eh, that might be because he keeps saying 'Pi'. "It must have been Piccolomon who defeated Kuwagamon for us!"  
"Pi pi pi! Impressed by the force of my magic, aren't you pi?!" He then pointed his spear at us. "You guys are supposed to be the Chosen Children, aren't you? You were so weak I couldn't stand watching you pi! If you keep that up, then even with your Tags and Crests, it'll be like casting pearls before swine pi!"  
"This Digimon isn't cute at all." Mimi muttered.  
"The same goes for you Digimon pi! All of you are slacking off pi! You're lacking exertion pi! You have no guts pi!"

"Man, he's so noisy with his pi-pi-pipping." Yamato whispered.  
"I hate exerting myself." Palmon admitted.  
"I don't even have guts to begin with." Gomamon said.  
"That's why all of you… will be coming with me for some training starting today pi!"  
"Training?" questioned Sora.  
"What do you mean?" Tentomon asked.  
"Especially for you over there!" He pointed his spear towards Taichi.  
"M-Me?!"  
"You and your Agumon win the grand prize pi! You'll have intensive training with a special menu pi!"  
"Special menu?"  
"Intensive training?" Agumon added.  
"Now, follow me pi! Pi pi pi pi pi-" He began walking away as we all huddled around to discuss about this whole training.

"What should we do?" began Koushiro.  
"Can we even trust that Digimon?" concerned Jou.  
"How's he like, Gabumon?" Yamato asked.  
"He nags a lot, but he's not a bad Digimon."  
"It didn't look like he had a black gear or a cable either." Palmon noticed.  
"Why not do what he says? It's true we don't know how to raise our Digimon correctly, anyway. It'll be fun if we think of it as a training camp." Sora said.  
"Training camp?" I suddenly had a wide smile on my face.  
"Oh, no. I know that look." Taichi moaned.  
"What look?" asked Guilmon.  
"He's gonna think this as boot camp."  
"Look, I think he's on the level. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have saved you, Taichi." I reminded.  
"Well, it certainly can't be any worse than simply walking around." Mimi added.  
"What do you think, Taichi?" Yamato said to Taichi.  
"Well… I say let's go! It sounds interesting."  
"Then it's decided!" Takeru cheered.  
"Yeah!" We all cried.  
"What's taking you so long?! Hurry up pi!" Piccolomon yelled.

We followed the little Digimon across the desert for about thirty minutes but we were getting exhausted because the weather was getting hotter and the wind was dying down.  
"Are we there yet?" Piyomon asked.  
"Almost there pi!"  
"That's all you've ever been saying!" moaned Palmon. Thankfully, he finally stopped… in the middle of nowhere.  
"Here we are pi. This is the place pi." We all looked around.  
"Here? But I don't see anything!" Sora questioned.  
"Pi." He flew up above us before he started saying some words and twirling around his staff before a portal opened up and revealed a vast jungle.  
"Wh-What's this?!" dumbfounded Jou.  
"Nothing to be afraid of pi. This is just the entrance through my barrier pi! Now follow me pi!" We quickly nodded to each other before we did as he said and walked through before the portal behind us closed.

"It's a jungle!" Takeru said. As we kept moving we started to hear the sound of what sounded like a car horn behind us.  
"Hey!" Sora got our attention. "Look behind you!" We turned around to see out in the desert a trailer being pulled by a Monochromon. It was obvious the trailer belonged to Etemon as his name was on it in kanji.  
"What now?" Jou was starting to panic.  
"That's Etemon's trailer pi." Piccolomon confirmed our suspicions, much to the continual worry of Jou. "Nothing to worry about pi. He can't see through my barrier on the other side pi."

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Etemon was clearly not happy. It had been days since the Chosen Children were last spotted by him or his network; he was still unaware of Cockatrimon fate. The fact that he had these kids in his grip twice only to escape was too much of stain on his ego. To make matters even more hectic for him, his Dark Network was still crippled.  
"Have you fixed it yet?!" He questioned the Gazimon.  
"It's being restored at a superb rate! Please wait just a little longer!" The ape had little patience, he was for things now rather than later. That was proven when he started jumping on his seat.  
"I can't wait anymore! Hurry up and repair my network!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After a few more minutes of walking through the jungle, we finally came across a large mountain with a tall stairwell engraved in it.  
"My house is up here pi." Piccolomon explained. Most of us looked slightly concerned by it, do we really have to walk all these steps or there some kind of elevator?  
"Up here…" Jou said.  
"What is this?! I don't believe it!" Mimi complained.  
"Do we have to climb all of this?" Koushiro asked.  
"I wonder how many steps there are." Takeru wondered.  
"There's no use counting them." Yamato told him.  
"Wait, does this mean our training has already started?!" Sora questioned.  
"Exactly pi." Everyone fell to their knees.  
"This is a piece of cake. After all, I can just…" Tentomon muttered, not feeling too worried since he could fly.  
"Just so you know, no flying is allowed during training pi." Tentomon fell to the ground in defeat. "Oh, stop thinking complaints and start climbing pi!" Everyone moaned.

"Guys, he's right, there really is no point in complaining, so I say we should just do this." I said. Suddenly, I saw my chest glowing and dug underneath my shirt and jersey and pulled out my Tag to reveal it was glowing silver.  
"Ross! Your Tag…" Guilmon announced. I quickly looked around and on the side stairwell was something we didn't notice before. It was a strange symbol, but now there was no longer any doubt of what it was. This was my Crest. The symbol was a triangle with a circle on top with four smaller triangles, two on each side of the larger triangle. I walked over to it and it began to glow silver before it began to shrink and locked itself into my Tag. I took a long look at it.  
"You know… a few days ago, I would've been real happy about finding this… but now, I'm really apprehensive of getting this."  
"And that's what this training is all about pi!" Piccolomon announced as he flew up next to me. You know, if this is all going to be training… then maybe he wouldn't be opposed to what I wanted to ask.  
"Hey, Piccolomon? If I get up these stairs fast to the point I break a record, would you let me call you 'Sarge'?" I could see Taichi face palming from the group. The fairy thought about it for a moment before he answered.  
"Well, you'd have to be pretty fast to…" That's all I need to hear as I took off running up the stairs while listening to the soundtrack of _**Rocky IV**_.

 _Piccolomon's Jungle, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+19. Sunset.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

The long hours that it took for us to get up the stairs were exhausting and we still weren't up to the top yet! As we kept going up, we had lost complete track of where Ross had gone, he probably either collapsed up ahead and we still haven't caught up or he's already at the top.  
"It's pathetic to see you worn out from simple stuff like this pi! Why can't you all be more like your friend who is still waiting for you all?" Okay, so looks like Ross made it. "Look, there's my house pi." Oh thank goodness, just a few more steps! My legs are about to fall off at this rate.  
"It looks creepy…" Jou concerned.  
"I have food waiting for you pi." He said the magic words as suddenly all fatigue washed away at the mere mention of food.  
"Food!" Gomamon cried. We all quickly ran the rest of the way before we finally arrived at his house. It was a circular building that seemed about four or five stories high. Ross was sitting on the steps of the front door looking content.  
"What kept you guys?" He smiled.  
"Shut up." I told him as we walked on in.

The interior of the place had many rooms and windows that I think was based off of traditional architecture, Fujian Tulou, I think? Eh, Hikari maybe would know, she's also learning a bit of Mandarin as well. The main focus of the place however was the giant stone statue at the center of the building that was shaped exactly like Piccolomon.  
"Hey… Where's the food?" Gomamon asked.  
"You have to complete your next training before that pi."  
"I knew it." Piccolomon did his magic spear twirl yet again and suddenly a bunch of buckets and rags appeared before us.  
"You'll be scrubbing all of these floors pi!" There had to be a catch to food, wasn't there?  
"S-Scrubbing the floors?!" questioned Yamato.  
"All of them from top to bottom?!" Tentomon added.  
"No way!" Mimi cried. "This isn't fair!" Piccolomon then proceeded to take myself and Agumon aside.  
"You two have the special menu pi. Come with me pi."  
"Special menu…" We both groaned as we walked away.  
"There's no other choice. Let's get this over with." Sora concluded before we left them behind.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"I've never scrubbed floors, not even in my own house!" Mimi told us. We had been scrubbing for a few minutes now, and we were starting to reach our limits in terms of tolerating Piccolomon. Sure, maybe he isn't a minion of Etemon and is on our side, but it feels more like he's just using us just to do his chores.  
"Is this really training?" Piyomon asked.  
"Maybe he's just using us to work as his maids…" Palmon assumed.  
"Just be glad this isn't actually the army. They'd make you scrub toilets instead of the floors." Ross defended. He sure did like Piccolomon. Now I'm kinda regretting referring all of this as training camp because Ross might be taking it a bit too seriously.  
"FOOD!" Gomamon screamed. We were all hungry and it still didn't look like any food was coming anytime soon.  
"Tokomon, let's race to see who's faster!"  
"Okay! I won't lose to you!" Both Takeru and Tokomon turned the cleaning into a game which put a smile on a lot of our faces, especially Yamato's.  
"Takeru." He muttered.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Piccolomon led us back down the stairs until we came across this strange cave.  
"Now, go inside here pi." Agumon and I looked at each other and nodded before we walked in. Once inside, it was so dark I could hardly see a thing.  
"It's pitch black!" Agumon complained.  
"What do we do in here, Piccolomon?" I asked. "We can't even see anything!" Suddenly, I felt like the ground was sinking. As it turned out, I was sinking into the ground!  
"Make sure to come back! That's your training pi!" I heard Piccolomon say as I lost conciseness.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

I couldn't sleep. After we did the cleaning, we went to sleep with no food. If Piccolomon was on our side, then I don't see it. I was thinking about earlier and how Taichi and Agumon haven't returned yet. Something was wrong and I intended to find out at least where he was. Everyone was dead asleep with Gomamon making sounds.  
"Food… Feed me more…" He murmured in his sleep as I slowly opened the door. I then heard Koushiro waking up before he looked over at me. I quickly put my finger to my mouth indicating to keep it down.  
"Shhhhh." I said before he followed me outside the door. "Taichi and Agumon haven't come back yet."  
"Yes. I wonder what happened to them." My chest began to glow and so did Koushiro's meaning that our Crests were nearby. We pulled out our Tags just to be sure.  
"They're glowing."  
"Yamato-san."  
"Our Crests must be nearby." We walked out of the building and proceeded down the stairs in search for our Crests.  
"Maybe we should bring Tentomon and Gabumon with us." suggested Koushiro.  
"Nah. Besides, we're safe within the barrier. Let's let them sleep." The Tag glowed again. "It's this way! Let's go!"  
"Okay!" We both took off in a sprint.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Taichi! Hey, Taichi, wake up!" I heard Agumon shout. I slowly began to open my eyes to reveal that we weren't dead but rather floating in a boat in a strange place. The whole area was cloudy and foggy and we could barely see anything.  
"Wh-Where are we?" I asked.  
"I don't know. I thought we were in a cave." I got up in the boat and tried calling out for help.  
"Hey! Piccolomon!" The boat soon began rocking and tossed me into the water.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Oh be quiet. Is this really training?" He pulled out an oar and motioned me to grab it and climb back in.  
"Taichi! Something's shining over there!"  
"H-Hey! Look over here!" Pull me out of the water first, Agumon, before you look at a light. The rocking began again and Agumon was now tossed into the water. We both then grabbed a hold of the side of it. "Geez, Agumon, what are you doing?"  
"I was only trying to help you!"  
"That's a lie, you were looking off somewhere else!"  
"But the light!"  
"Wait a second. The boat is drifting away. Come on, hang tight!"  
"Don't change the subject. And to begin with, Taichi, you were…!" We were engulfed by a bright light before he could say anymore.

 _Piccolomon's House, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+20. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido__

The sound of a spear clanging on a bucket was how we were loudly woken up this morning. Apparently, Piccolomon isn't one to just simply tap one on the shoulder to wake someone up.  
"What, what's this racket?" Mimi yelled. We all groggily walked out of the room, except for Ross who looked wide awake, but then again, he sees this as some sort of boot camp.  
"Hey! It's morning pi! How long do you plan on sleeping pi?! Look sharp pi!"  
"Sir! Looking sharp, sir!" Ross shouted.  
"Shut up." I moaned at him. All he did was give me a look that read 'You shut up'.  
"Has anyone seen Koushiro-han?" Tentomon asked.  
"And Yamato!" Gabumon added. We looked and saw that not only were Taichi and Agumon still not back but Yamato and Koushiro were also missing.  
"Hey, Piccolomon, do you know where they are?" Takeru inquired.  
"Those two left to find their Crests pi."  
"Eh?" We all said.  
"Oh, so he left me behind." Tentomon disappointingly muttered.

"Taichi and Agumon haven't come back since last night… And now it's Koushiro-kun and Yamato-kun." Sora reminded. "It's quite mysterious how they're disappearing one after another."  
"Maybe Jou-senpai is next." Mimi said. My eyes widened.  
"H-Hey, don't say weird stuff like that!" I shouted. "M-Maybe Piccolomon…"  
"Oh, Jou, you get scared too easily!" Gomamon tried to assure me. "It's all right. We can trust Piccolomon." I adjusted my glasses.  
"A-Are you sure?"  
"Now, time for training pi!" He shouted.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

It was morning by the time we got down the stairs and walked through the jungle; our Tags were still glowing but the Crests were nowhere to be found.  
"Hey." I alerted Koushiro. "Why do you want your Crest, Koushiro?"  
"Why? I want to see what Kabuterimon evolves into next, of course! What about you, Yamato-san?"  
"I… I want to improve myself!" He clearly didn't know what I meant. "It's not just the Digimon who evolve and become stronger. I want to mature along with them and grab onto something about me that's different from before." We finally stopped as we saw the desert before us and a well that stood out in the area. "We're at the end of the barrier."  
"We've come this far only to reach a dead end…" I checked to see that the Tags were still glowing… and the inside of the well was glowing too which meant our Crests were outside the barrier and in the well.  
"Hey!"  
"The well is glowing! Our Crests must be inside it, Yamato-san!"  
"But it's outside the barrier!" He walked up to the barrier and checked to see if he could walk through it by sticking his hand out.  
"We can go to the other side!" There was no use; we just had to do this.  
"Okay."

A few minutes later, we were scaling down the rope that led into the well. Thank goodness we weren't adults or this rope probably wouldn't support us. The well was glowing in light which confirmed that our Crests were somewhere down here.  
"They're nearby!" Koushiro said above me.  
"The light is getting stronger!" The wall glowed blue and purple and I saw a circle that had two fins on the side and a curving line in the middle of the circle glowing blue. This was my Crest! "Hey, the wall! Hold your Tag up to the wall!"  
"Okay!" He did the same and two circles glowing purple appeared on the wall. The circle on the right was smaller than the one on the left and it had a large dot in the middle. Koushiro's Crest had now been found as well. The two symbols soon came off the wall and began spinning around us before they became Crests and slid themselves into the Tags.  
"This is my Crest." I declared.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Unfortunately for the two boys, being only a few feet out of the barrier was too much as a camera attached to the end of a black cord was taking a look down the well. At the same time, Etemon's network was back in working order and the camera had now just relayed the location back to the monkey.  
"There's a signal in the K-1 area!" A Gazimon informed Etemon.  
"What? Hey! We just passed the place!" He began to violently shake one of his subordinates. "The K-1 area is Tyranomon's territory. All right, I'll teach them a thing or two!" Back at the well, the two boys climbed out of the well, only to be greeted by a large red dinosaur and it wasn't Growmon. This one was similar to Greymon but instead of a brown skull on top of its head, it had green fins that ran down his back and was connected to a bunch of black cables. The two boys panicked and ran back towards the barrier.  
"Run!" Yamato ordered the younger redhead. Tyranomon attacked them with a Fire Breath attack that sent the two kids flying forward and the barrier being damaged, revealing the jungle in the middle of the desert. He soon began pursuing the two Chosen Children into the vast jungle.

Back at Piccolomon's house, the children and Digimon were meditating before Piccolomon used his spear to whack Gabumon who he believed had fallen asleep.  
"Oww…" The wolf-pelt wearing Digimon moaned. Piccolomon walked by the group until he suddenly stopped.  
"The barrier has been smashed pi! Yamato and Koushiro are in danger pi!"  
"Yamato!" Gabumon cried.  
"Koushiro-han!" added Tentomon. All of them got up and followed Piccolomon out. For Yamato and Koushiro, they kept running as fast as they could as Tyranomon kept firing at them.  
"P-Please wait for me, Yamato-san!"  
"Hurry up, Koushiro!"  
"Yamato!" Gabumon called out.  
"Gabumon?"  
"That's what you get for leaving me behind!" Tentomon chewed out Koushiro as the others rejoined them.  
"Are you guys all right?" Sora asked.  
"What happened?" Ross questioned.  
"That's Tyranomon!" Piyomon informed the others.  
"Just give me the word, Ross, and I'll show him." Guilmon offered. At the same time, the camera cord was watching them again.

"Looks like they're all gathered there." Etemon, back at his trailer, was laughing. "Since I haven't done 'that' in a while, why don't we go with it? It's showtime!" In the jungle, multiple black cords began springing up before a projector came on and started broadcasting Etemon's image. He had his guitar out and the kids knew exactly what was coming. "Here I go! Love Serenade!"  
"Oh no!" Gabumon cried.  
"M-My power is drained." Tentomon said. Once again, Etemon had crippled the group.  
"N-Now none of them will be able to evolve!" Koushiro worried. Tyranomon launched another Fire Breath in an effort to destroy all of them but it was blocked by a barrier thrown up by Piccolomon. The dinosaur kept launching attacks but couldn't break through. However, it was clear to the others that the fairy couldn't keep it up forever.  
"Taichi, Agumon, what are you doing pi?! Your friends are in danger pi!"

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"It's no use." I said. Our attempts to find our way out of this strange place we found ourselves in was at a loss. "We just keep drifting further and further away." We just kept spinning and spinning in the boat until I noticed some familiar structures we were passing by. Then the sound of a crash really got my attention as we came across a familiar bridge. "Where are we? This bridge…" We soon found our way on to the bridge.  
"Ow." A voice said. As I finally saw the figure on the bridge… my jaw dropped.  
"What's wrong, Taichi?" Agumon asked. The figure on the bridge… was me! Well, not me, but rather five-year old me who was still learning how to ride my bike without training wheels.  
"That's… That's me!"  
"Taichi?"  
"I can't do it." My younger self said with tears in his eyes. "I can't ride a bicycle."  
"Don't give up!" I told him as we walked up to him. "You can't give up from just one or two failures! Don't get faint-hearted! Believe in yourself. Believe that it'll work out this time!"  
"Taichi." Agumon said.  
"Okay." My younger self nodded. "I got it!" He climbed back on and myself and Agumon grabbed the rear of the bike.  
"Here. We'll hold you up from behind." Agumon offered. He began peddling and we pushed until he got some speed and we let go.  
"I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"  
"Okay, now, we're letting go!"  
"O-Okay. I'm pedaling on my own! I can ride a bike!" My younger self cheered as he vanished into the fog.

"I almost forgot, Agumon. I forgot that I can't lose heart. I lost my nerve because I thought you might evolve into a strange Digimon again."  
"I felt the same way. That's why I couldn't become Greymon. But it's just like riding a bicycle! If we combine our powers… I feel like I can evolve once again!" We nodded at each other as we were no longer afraid of trying to evolve again. That must have been the lesson that Piccolomon was trying to teach us. We quickly returned to the boat and began rowing our way back to the others.  
"Let's go!" I announced.  
"Together!" As we returned to the jungle, we heard a fight breaking out and knew we were needed.  
"Hurry! Everyone is in trouble!"  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!"

Greymon imminently got to work and rapidly knocked down the red dinosaur before giving a loud, proud roar.  
"It's Greymon!" Gabumon cheered.  
"Agumon was able to evolve!" Tokomon said.  
"Mega Flame!" The two large dinosaurs began a long fight with each other with neither wanting to give ground. I slowly walked over to the others with a proud look on my face.  
"Taichi!" Sora happily said.  
"Yeah." I nodded, giving her a smile. At this point, the fight was in Greymon's favor as he picked up the other dinosaur and pile driver-ed him into the ground causing the cables connecting to him snap.  
"Go! That's it!" Gomamon cried.  
"Get him! Get him!" Palmon joined in the cheering. Greymon slammed the dinosaur to the ground and cause him to begin to disintegrate as those cords must have been keeping him alive. Greymon gave out another roar in total victory with all of us cheering as well.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

It was around sunset by the time we started to leave Piccolomon's house. He may not have the most hospitable of hosts but thanks to him, we were no longer fearful of trying to evolve our Digimon with the Crests anymore, especially Taichi. Sure, we still haven't figured it out, but I'm now sure that we'll find a way. I'm now glad I've got my Crest. If we can figure this mystery out, we'll be on the fast track back home.  
"Really. Thank you for everything." Taichi thanked the fairy Digimon.  
"Thank you for taking care of us." Agumon added.  
"Don't think your training is over yet pi. Everything in life itself is training pi. Do your best while never giving up pi!" Ain't that the truth.  
"Yes, sir!"  
"We won't let you down, Sarge!" I said. The others started to laugh as well all walked away.

One thing for sure, we'll figure out how to evolve our Digimon and then Etemon won't stand a chance…

* * *

And that was Chapter 19 and the episode that introduced my favorite Digimon ally. I just loved Piccolomon and his whole routine, reminded me so much of a Drill Sergeant.

So for what Ross' Crest looks like, I've got the image, thanks to a guy who let me use it on DeviantArt. I'm keeping him and picture under wraps right now, because I want to keep the secret of what the Crest signifies until it is revealed.

So for the next chapter, I'll make the dead line the 5th and I'll try not to miss it, but who knows with my body. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	21. Nanomon of the Labyrinth!

Chapter 20, everybody. Sorry for the deadline missing but distractions like games, videos, the family, the Astros wanting to keep playing nail-biting walk off games...

Anyways, shout out to **R.E.W. 4** for the fav/follow. Thanks a million.

What do you say we get on with this?

* * *

 **Chapter 20: Nanomon of the Labyrinth!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+27. Morning.  
 _P.O.V – Ross McGlathery__

Somehow, against the odds, we keep surviving. It's been almost an entire month since we first came to the Digital World. An entire month of trying to find a way home. I really wonder what's going on back home. Are the resources being used to try to find us starting to dwindle? I once heard police searches for missing people start losing their support after a month of no leads, and about four months when the search is left just to families. Shoot, school should be starting again right now. There really is nothing we can do about this other than keep going and trying to hopefully find a way back. But then again… it wouldn't be the first time I gave up hope.

' _Come on, just one more step.'_

For now, our focus was trying to find a way to defeat Etemon. After couple of days of walking and keeping ahead of the Elvis wannabe, we finally came across something that might be very helpful in our fight and it wasn't one of our Digimon evolving to their Perfect-Level. We followed many of the black cords we knew were part of Etemon's Dark Network that he used to keep control over the continent. They connected to this metal generator that served as one of many central hubs to the Network, according to Koushiro.

"This?" Taichi was confused about what Koushiro said a moment ago.  
"Yes. This is undoubtedly the network Etemon uses to figure out our location."  
"Th-Then maybe he's already detected that we're here!" panicked Jou, once again. I swear, he's gonna die from a panic attack someday.  
"We should make a run for it then!" Mimi agreed with Jou's fears.  
"Let's run, let's run!" Palmon shouted.  
"Now now, calm down." Sora assured.  
"Even if we run from here, he'll sniff us out again sooner or later." Yamato reminded.  
"Hey, Koushiro? Is there any way to fry this network from here? Really cripple his operations?" I asked.  
"From here? I doubt it. But give me a minute to see what I can do." He answered as he pulled out his laptop and then pulled a cord out of the generator.

"What are you doing?" Tentomon questioned.  
"Well, it's just as I expected. This is definitely connected to Etemon's network information." We didn't doubt you, Koushiro, but thanks for confirming. "Maybe I can find something else in here!"  
"What's that mark?" Takeru pointed on the screen.  
"E-mail?" What? Who the hell is contacting us out here? "But from who?"  
"Think it could be from the enemy?" Jou asked.  
"Jou-san, you whine more than my dog Drew when he's hungry." I told him off. He backed down; we didn't need complaining right now.  
"Open it, Koushiro." Taichi ordered about the e-mail.  
"Okay." The e-mail opened and in a large kanji spelled 'Help me!'  
"'Help me?'" Sora read out.  
"Eh?" We all responded.  
"'If you help me, I will tell you where the Crests are hidden.'" Koushiro read off the rest of the letter.  
"The Crests?" Yamato asked.  
"Who is this guy?" Taichi questioned.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

As usual, Etemon was not happy. With Tyranomon destroyed days ago, he once again lost the Chosen Children. Even when he thought his network was back to peak operating capacity, it still was somehow failing him. How it was failing was the screen in front of him was flashing red dots all over meaning that the Chosen Children were all in those locations, which he knew to be impossible.  
"What in the world is going on here?!" He complained from his trailer. "Where are the Chosen Children?!"  
"It's no use, Etemon-sama!" A Gazimon informed him. "I don't see any malfunctioning here!"  
"But there's an abnormality in the pyramid's host computer!" Another one said. Only one Digimon could have the kind of access that Etemon had with his network.  
"It must be Nanomon. We're going to give him a little visit!"  
"Yes, sir!" The trailer took off towards the direction of the insubordinate Nanomon.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

How did we end up here? We were beginning to walk into a canyon and it was making me somewhat nervous. After we read the e-mail, it gave us directions to a location that it claimed was very important to us. The group took it to a vote of what we should do. Surprisingly, myself and Jou were the only ones who voted to ignore the letter. My reasoning was that it was too good to be true and that this may in fact be an elaborate trap. This whole canyon was a perfect example of why I had my doubts. One way in or out, perfect vantage points from above and no cover in the canyon. If Etemon or any of his cronies attacked, well, not a good day for us. However, the vote stood and now we were on our way to this location.

"What do we do if it's the enemy's trap?" Jou asked. Now I kinda feel bad for insulting him earlier considering we were on the same side of caution now.  
"But he might turn out to be on our side, like Gennai-san." believed Mimi.  
"We can't just ignore him when he needs our help." Taichi reminded. True, if someone needs our help, then we should help. Still, we did get this e-mail on Etemon's network. Koushiro was still on his laptop pointing us in the direction we needed to go.  
"It should be around here." He said. Considering this message mentioned the Crests, both Takeru and Sora had their Tags out, waiting for the slightest hint of a reaction. Sure enough, Takeru's began glowing in a yellowish gold.  
"It's glowing!" He cried.  
"It's close." Yamato added.  
"Takeru, over here!" Tokomon ran forward and force the rest of us to follow him. "This is it! Your Crest!" At the end of the canyon was a dead end, and on the canyon wall was a symbol that definitely was Takeru's Crest. The symbol was a sort of sun that was above a cape looking object if I had to describe it. We ran up to it and as soon as the Tag was close, the symbol glowed, blinding us and turned into Takeru's Crest.

"I have my Crest!"  
"That's great, Takeru!" Tokomon praised.  
"Guess it wasn't a trap after all." Yamato said. I guess I was just a bit jumpy. If this was a trap by Etemon, then he wouldn't have let us get a Crest just to ambush us.  
"He said that he'll tell us where the last Crest is after we help him." Koushiro read the rest of the letter.  
"Okay. Then let's go do that right away!" Taichi announced.  
"Look there!" Mimi pointed to where Takeru's Crest once stood. Inside the canyon was a strange cave that looked more like it was part of some ancient ruins. We all walked inside to get a closer look.  
"There's no mistake! These are the same characters I've seen before in Andromon's factory and Kentarumon's ruins! The only thing that's different is this symbol." Koushiro pointed to one on the wall. He then rubbed it and when it was erased, the whole tunnel lit up. "Just as I'd thought… In here, energy is produced based on a program."  
"What do you mean?" Mimi asked what we were all thinking.  
"In other words, by rewriting the program that's written on this wall here, I can turn the light on or off. I think if I do this…" Suddenly, a large holographic map appeared deeper in the cave.

"That's a map of the neighboring area."  
"N-No way…" doubted Jou. "You can do stuff like that just by using a program written on the wall? It's not like we're inside a computer…"  
"You don't know that."  
"Care to explain, Koushiro?" I asked.  
"Well, I've been thinking that perhaps this place… this entire world, is a place where data and programs have taken physical form." Well, that's not entirely a mystery. Digital Monsters, Server, File, it's a little on the nose. But what exactly is this kid trying to say, because he's lost me.  
"Oh, yeah. At the factory, you mentioned that before Andromon attacked us." Yamato remembered.  
"If this is a world of data, then does that include us too?" Sora questioned. Wait, is that what he was trying to say?  
"Yes. We exist completely as data without any real substance."  
"No real substance?" repeated Taichi. "You mean we don't have real flesh and blood?"  
"Something like ghosts?" Mimi guessed.  
"S-Something close to that." Koushiro answered.

"Then… Where are our real selves?" Yamato came to the conclusion we all reached.  
"Perhaps… Still on the campgrounds…" We all looked at each other in confusion and worry. "The Digimon are 'Digital Monsters' in the truest sense. They're life forms shaped together from data."  
"Then we're inside something like a video game?" Takeru suggested.  
"It's not as simple as that…"  
"Yeah, Takeru, it might be more like _**The Matrix**_ or _**Dark City**_." I pointed out, though he probably hasn't seen the two films, especially the last one.  
"Agreed. Koushiro, could the person who sent that e-mail be made of data too?" Yamato asked.  
"I'm not sure…" He looked down to his screen. "Eh?" He seemed surprised.  
"What is it?" Taichi questioned.  
"P-Please wait a minute! I'll make it easier for you guys to understand." He started typing on his laptop until that holographic map turned into a globe. "I've adjusted it so you can see the entire globe." Yep, it was now completely official. We were no longer on Earth. "This includes the program I saw in Andromon's factory… If I combine it with the map Gennai-san sent me…"  
"It's a big world. It's about as wide as Earth." Yamato stated.  
"Actually, it's exactly the same." Come again?

"Here, look at this e-mail address." He pointed to the screen of his laptop. "The computer that sent this e-mail is located… Over there!" A red dot began flashing on holo-globe. "That's the same place as a homepage that I visited frequently on the Internet!"  
"What does that mean?" Taichi asked again. We somehow followed him then he loses us again.  
"Are you saying the e-mail came from our world?" Sora inquired.  
"That's not all." Koushiro continued. A second globe appeared, this one more familiar to us. "Over on the right is the Earth we know of. If you put our computer network system on top of this world…" The two globes moved towards each other and the lines that represented the networks lined up perfectly. Our jaws dropped.  
"The shape of the networks is exactly the same!"  
"So what does this all mean?" Mimi questioned.  
"This is a world that's only made of data." Koushiro explained. "It's the same as what you would find in a video game or a computer. But that doesn't mean we're somewhere far from Earth. We're inside our own computer network itself! In other words, this Digimon world is in the same place as our world… You could call even the Earth's shadow!"  
"You've got to be kidding me…" I muttered.  
"The Earth's…" Yamato began.  
"Shadow…?" finished Jou.

"This… This was Earth?!" Jou shouted.  
"Can we get home really soon then?" asked Takeru.  
"No." Yamato sadly shot his little brother's hopes down. "It's not like that. We're really close, but we're not on Earth itself."  
"Now I'm confused more than ever on what to do." Jou mumbled.  
"Oh, what are you talking about?" Gomamon questioned. "You got me!"  
"Sora. I couldn't understand much of it, but does this mean you're leaving?" Piyomon asked.  
"No. It appears we still have stuff to do in this world, so we can't leave until we've finished that."  
"Yeah. Anyway, we should save the guy who sent the e-mail first." Taichi reminded. "Where do we go next, Koushiro?"  
"Well… If I run the program that came attached to the e-mail…" A few clicks on the keyboard and the wall at the end of the cave vanished and now there was an opening to the outside.  
"The wall!" Agumon shouted.  
"I can see outside!" Gabumon chimed in.

"What just happened?" questioned Taichi.  
"The sender should be outside there!" Koushiro explained.  
"He was this close to us?" Sora wondered.  
"No. Apparently, that program servers to warp and connect airspace." We walked towards the opening to look outside. A quick look showed we were in another desert and the cave led us out the mouth of a sphinx statue, similar to the one in Egypt. Over to our left was a large pyramid, except this was upside down. And driving right towards it was an all too familiar trailer.  
"That's…" Taichi pulled out his telescope. "It's Etemon!"  
"Looks like we found his headquarters. Of course, the guy we have to rescue would be in the lion's den." I complained.  
"There's no way we could get in there without being spotted. So what do we do now?" Yamato asked.  
"Let's rest for the remainder of the day. I'll try to figure out something by tomorrow." Koushiro advised as we went back into the tunnel.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+27. Night.  
 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi__

We mostly spent the rest of the day relaxing while Koushiro tried to figure out a way to sneak into Etemon's Pyramid. Come night fall, we did as we usually did; take turns on the watch shift. Ross took first shift, then Taichi, and now it was my turn.  
"Taichi." I walked up to him and Agumon.  
"It's time to change shifts." Piyomon informed them.  
"Thank goodness." sighed Agumon. "I was starting to get tired. Good night." He began to walk back towards the tunnel.  
"Me too." Taichi added. "Guess I'll sleep to prepare for tomorrow."  
"I'm sorry, Taichi." I said.  
"Huh?"  
"In the end… You're going through all of this trouble just for my Crest, right?" I was feeling ashamed because we were going to do something really dangerous just to get my Crest and I felt guilty about it.  
"That's how it ended up." He responded with a smile on his face. "Anyway, I'm not the type of guy who turns his back on someone in trouble." We were silent for a moment. "You're not acting like yourself, Sora. If it was your Crest we'd found first, would you be bothered about this as you are now?"  
"I doubt I would have even thought of it." My answer just added to the guilt.  
"See? Besides, we're just data right now. No point in thinking about this seriously." What exactly is he meaning? Eh, never mind.  
"If we return to our own world, do you think we'll remember our experiences and the Digimon we've met in this world?"  
"Who knows…"

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+28. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Isumi__

We were preparing to sneak our way into Etemon's Pyramid thanks to the information that I had discovered through the night. Our mysterious messenger had sent me a detailed layout of the Pyramid and ways to sneak in under Etemon's nose. Mostly everyone was back in the tunnel getting some breakfast while myself, Ross and Sora were outside in the canyon as they had a few more questions for me before we headed out.

"I'm still not entirely following this whole digitized bodies thing you mentioned before." Ross asked.  
"Well, let's see… Even though I said we are digitalized… Our data is pretty bulky and elaborate. Considering the large amount of our data that's been shifted into this world, it should cause feedback when we return to our own world." I explained.  
"So in other words, we should still treat ourselves as if we have real bodies, right?" Sora inquired.  
"Right, it's better to think that way, I believe."  
"Just like I thought, we shouldn't act irresponsibly just because we're data now."  
"Then it's definitely like _**The Matrix**_ , 'The body can't live without the mind' according to Morpheus. We die here, our bodies back home don't wake up." Ross concluded. We all nodded in agreement.  
"We just keep going as we have before, taking care not to perform any undue risks to our health." I said.  
"Hey!" Taichi called out from the tunnel. "What are you doing over there? Hurry up!"  
"We're coming!" informed Sora.

Everyone all waited on me to activate the program that once again would teleport the doorway to the sphinx. Once I did that, we all walked through the doorway and were looking at the pyramid once again. I then pulled up the map to the base; we'd use that to sneak our way in.  
"There's a hidden passageway in the pyramid that's normally not visible." I informed.  
"Our first and foremost priority is to save the sender and get Sora-kun's Crest. Do _not_ get yourselves involved in any unnecessary battles!" Jou briefed.  
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Taichi said.  
"I wanted to go too." Takeru said disappointingly.  
"Don't be selfish, Takeru." Yamato reminded him. The plan was for Sora, Taichi, Ross, Jou and I along with our respective Digimon to sneak into the base and find our e-mail contact.  
"Be careful, everyone." Mimi worried.  
"Keep steady." Palmon added.  
"Things will be all right!" Gomamon assured.  
"You won't even have time to miss us." Guilmon claimed.  
"Yeah, we'll be back soon!" Taichi cheered as he and Agumon jumped down out of the sphinx mouth. The rest of us going followed suit.  
"Come back safely!" Takeru and Tokomon said their goodbyes as they waved.

After a couple of minutes, we cut across multiple dunes before we finally got around to the hidden entrance of the pyramid.  
"The hidden passageway should be up ahead on this side of the pyramid." We ran forward as quietly as we could so we wouldn't alert the Gazimon guarding the main entrance. Taichi looked over to the entrance before he backed off with a somewhat worried look on his face.  
"What's wrong Taichi?" Agumon asked.  
"It's Etemon!"  
"Eh!?" Jou shouted before he covered his mouth. Now I need to find this entrance now before we're found out.  
"Who's there?" Etemon asked as it sounded like he was walking over here.  
"What do we do, Sora?" Piyomon questioned.  
"Don't talk." whispered Sora. Thankfully, I found the way in. It was a false wall similar to that tree we took cover from Kuwagamon on our first day in the Digital World. We all quickly ran in before Etemon turned the corner.  
"Am I hearing things?" He said to himself. Taichi then flashed his hand out before pulling it back in. "I don't know why, but I feel like someone was making fun of me! I'm so irritated! I'll go sing a song or something to amuse myself."

Taichi went back outside before coming back in, looking content with himself.  
"He's gone." He informed us. "It's all right now."  
"Don't act stupid! What if he found us?!" Sora argued.  
"That's right! Stop taking unnecessary risks, Taichi!" Ross reprimanded.  
"But we're perfectly fine!"  
"So this is the hidden passageway." Jou said.  
"It looks like it has data on the outside, but there's really nothing in it."  
"Eh?" The others questioned my explanation.  
"Let me see!" Agumon hit the wall and hurt his hand. "Oww…"  
"Everything besides the passageway is made up of data, so please be careful."

We walked along the passageway, down some stairs until we came across another false wall.  
"We can see outside from here." Taichi observed.  
"Yes." I was still looking at the map on my computer. "But no one can see us from the other side."  
"Two Gazimon, down the hall!" alerted Guilmon. We turned to see in fact two Gazimon walking down the hall.  
"Keep quiet." Sora ordered. As soon as they walked by, our eyes widened as Taichi ran out and kicked one of them before ducking back into our hall!  
"Hey, what was that for?!"  
"What?"  
"Don't play dumb! You just kicked me!"  
"No, I didn't."  
"What a barefaced lie! Take that!"  
"What are you doing?" It sounded like the two Gazimon were going at it.

Taichi was snickering to himself, now really proud of what he had done. He stopped as we got a move on once again.  
"Do you like just ignoring the helpful advice I give you?" Ross questioned.  
"Agreed. Why did you do that? What if they found out it was you?!" complained Sora.  
"Sora-kun, Ross-kun, both of you keep your voices down." Jou asked them.  
"You guys worry too much. We're just data, you know." Taichi dismissed.  
"Taichi, you…!" Sora was about to start again.  
"Sora-kun!" Jou silenced her.

We passed through another fake wall and came across a large fence. The fence was crackling with electricity.  
"Is there electricity running through this, or is it just me?" Tentomon asked.  
"The section that acts as a hidden entryway should only have harmless data in it." I explained.  
"So that means everything else is really electrified…?" worried Jou.  
"You look scared, Jou." Gomamon observed.  
"Of course I am!"  
"You're too timid, Jou." Taichi said. "So? Where's the entrance?"  
"Um…" I looked. "Over here." I pointed.  
"Okay." Taichi walked straight in without a second thought. All of us gasped. "What are you guys doing? Hurry up!" We all followed him through. We soon walked into a giant mechanized room that looked like some kind of hanger from a science fiction movie.  
"Here's our destination."  
"Here?"

In the center of the room was a strange glass pyramid and inside was mechanical creature. It had two long arms, four small legs, a weird mouth, and a glass dome above its different eyes with some circuity inside the dome indicating this might be his brain.  
"That… I'm pretty sure it's Nanomon. He's a very smart Digimon. He is a Perfect-Level Machine Digimon who, no matter what computer system he's up against, will reconstruct it with his fine technique." Tentomon revealed.  
"Could that Digimon be the one who sent the e-mail?" Sora asked.  
"That's exactly right, Chosen Children." A voice said from my computer.  
"I see! He's sending data directly through my IR port!"  
"I once fought with Etemon long ago and was crushed. My broken body was left sealed here. On top of having my ability to formulate stolen, I was given the job of supervising Etemon's network system. But one day, I recovered my memories and began to slowly repair my body in a way Etemon wouldn't notice. Soon I learned of everything that happened outside, and I became able to meddle with that information. However… I'll need a considerable amount of outside help to release me from confinement." Nanomon told us.  
"Do you really know where my Crest is?" questioned Sora.  
"Of course. I know many things that Etemon himself has not even heard of!"  
"Can we really trust him?" Jou wondered.  
"I agree, something seems off about him." added Ross.  
"Both you and I share Etemon as our enemy. Please trust me."  
"Okay then." Taichi answered. "Well, what should we do?"  
"Follow my orders."

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Koushiro ran over to a panel on the wall by the doorway that Nanomon pointed out to him.  
"Taichi-san! Please pull down that lever!" There was a lever on the other side of the doorway that Taichi ran up to before he pulled it down and the panel went up to reveal a knob and a button. "Right five. Left eight."  
"That's it, keep going…"  
"Push the button, and then… Taichi-san, pull up the lever again! That should open up his prison!"  
"Okay!"  
"Hold it!" An all too familiar voice shouted. We turned to see at the alternate doorway was standing Etemon.  
"Etemon!"  
"It's only natural that we'd catch you after all you've done. We have surveillance cameras here, you know!" Two Gazimon jumped in.  
"How dare you…" "Do that to us!" We all turned towards Taichi.  
"Ah, they found out."  
"Because of you, Taichi!" Jou yelled.

"My network began acting funny ever since the children landed here. That was you, wasn't it?" Etemon accused Nanomon of sabotage.  
"I finished my maintenance just before they arrived." Etemon was done talking and started charging straight towards us.  
"Taichi!" Agumon called out. "Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!"  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!"  
"Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!"  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!"  
"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!"  
"You're in the way!" Etemon shouted as he proceeded to wipe the floor with our Digimon. Punching Greymon, throwing Ikkakumon by the horn into Kabuterimon, roundhouse kicking Growmon to the floor like Swayze in _**Road House**_ , in short, we were in trouble once again. Taichi quickly lifted the lever releasing Nanomon.  
"You should see for yourself how powerful you've made this prison!" He launched the glass that took out the two Gazimon and headed straight towards Etemon but he merely punched it to shards. One piece however crashed right into Birdramon and slammed her against the wall before devolving into Piyomon. Oh, come on! I swear, is it too much to ask for me to be wrong?! Nanomon is backstabbing us!  
"Piyomon!" Sora cried out.  
"What are you doing?!" Taichi demanded.  
"I have no more use for you!"

"That's the kind of guy Nanomon is." Etemon chuckled.  
"Blabber all you want." Nanomon lifted his hand and shot out small missiles from his fingers. "Plug Bomb!" Etemon responded with a dark ball of green and black energy that built in his hand.  
"Dark Spirits!" The attacks collided causing a massive explosion that threw us all to the ground. Sora ran over to the injured Piyomon and cried out for her again.  
"Piyomon!" Nanomon was punched by Etemon and landed right next to her.  
"I win again." Etemon declared.  
"The only thing you're good at is fighting, monkey!" He quickly jumped up and… he's grabbing Sora and Piyomon! "Once I use their true power, your death is guaranteed! Prepare yourself!" He began running off with his hostages out the door.  
"Wait!" Etemon shouted but was blocked by our Digimon. We ran after him.  
"Sora!" Taichi yelled.  
"Don't let that traitor get away!" I insisted. We pursued until we came across the electric fence.

"TAICHI!" Sora screamed from the other side.  
"He escaped through the hidden passageway!" Koushiro observed.  
"I'm sure… That area is where her voice came from…" He started walking towards the fence.  
"Wait! I have to make sure of the location first!"  
"We're just data, remember?" He keeps saying that, what does he mean? "If I make a mistake, I can just start over!" Wait, what?! He can't be… Oh, God he is!  
"Stop him!" I didn't need to be told twice as both myself and Jou quickly seized him.  
"Hey! Let me go, you two! Sora is…!"  
"Taichi-san, you can't be thinking that just because you're data, you're free to act like a video game character, are you?"  
"Am I wrong?"  
"Completely! It's exactly the same as if we're living and breathing here."  
"Taichi, there are no 1-UPs, no resets, no save points. You die here… well, be sure to say 'Hi' to Mom for me." I coldly stated.  
"What?" The look on his face suddenly turned into one of shock and horror. I've seen this look once before… that warm day in September of '96. "N-No way!"

The three of us just stared at the fence while Koushiro was typing away.  
"It can't be…" muttered Taichi. "I never thought I'd really die…" We both let him go.  
"Taichi…" Jou said.  
"Listen, I didn't mean-" I tried to say before Koushiro interrupted me.  
"The hidden passageway is one meter from your right." Taichi slowly walked over to it.  
" _Wh-What's wrong with me?"_ Taichi thought. _"Sora's in danger!"_ Our chance to pursue was lost as suddenly behind us the wall exploded revealing our Digimon back in their Child forms.  
"No good… Taichi… He's too strong for us…" Agumon moaned.  
"Now that it's come to this, I'll just kill you first!" Etemon announced. Once again, another close call as the roof collapsed to reveal Togemon and Garurumon.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" "Fox Fire!" The attacks held back Etemon for the time being.  
"Guys! You all okay?" Yamato asked. "Let's run while they distract him! Taichi, hurry up!" Yamato grabbed him and we made our escape, leaving Etemon distracted long enough to successful throw him off our trail.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+28. Evening._

After we went back through the sphinx and the tunnel that led to the canyon, we explained what had happened and how everything turned on us.  
"I see… Sora and Piyomon were kidnapped…" Yamato came to understand. Taichi was on the ground with his head in his knees just shaking and tears in his eyes. I've never seen him this destroyed before.  
"Damn it… Damn it…! It's all my fault! Sora, it's all my fault!"

Whatever plans Nanomon had, we were going to stop him, rescue Sora, and defeat both him and Etemon, no matter what…

* * *

And that was Chapter 20. Again sorry for the delay.

I have really nothing to say at the end of this chapter, but boy do I got some stuff to say at the end of the next one. But you'll have to wait until the 8th for that. I'm planning to get some sleep, then work nonstop with little distractions to see if I can kinda get back to that whole doing a chapter every two days swing.

Until then, take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	22. Evolution to Perfect!

Hey, I made a deadline and got a chapter out in two days! Break out the champagne!

Shout out to reviewer **MadDogLucario96** for your support and understanding. You really help keep this thing going.

Always, on to the next chapter and I really had fun with this one especially at the end. Enjoy.

* * *

 **Chapter 21: Evolution to Perfect!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+28. Night.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

Nightfall had fallen on the area and most of us were gathered around the camp fire eating dinner and trying to figure out what to do next about the Sora and Nanomon situation. Koushiro was back in the tunnel on his computer trying to find anything that may help us in the endeavor and Takeru was sitting away from us with the rest of the Digimon.  
"We don't know where they are." reminded Jou. "There's no choice but to wait for Nanomon to make a move."  
"But what'll we do if he hurts Sora while we were waiting?" Taichi argued. He had managed to mostly recover, but we could all tell he was still wrought with guilt.  
"Precisely, it might be too late for Sora by the time he makes a move. We need to find him now!" I slammed my fist down to the ground.  
"Nanomon's goal is to defeat Etemon. Maybe if we beat Etemon first, he'll set her free." Yamato suggested.  
"You're suggesting appeasement, Yamato-kun. Like Neville Chamberlin giving up the Sudetenland to Germany in the hopes that Germany doesn't invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. I think Nanomon has bigger plans for later and sees Etemon as a stepping stone to dominating the continent."  
"Besides, we lost to Etemon earlier." Mimi pointed out.  
"Make sure you eat well so you can fight at any time." Takeru said to the other Digimon. Looks like the kid has come to realize that fighting is just unavoidable here.

About an hour later, Takeru and the Digimon had gone to sleep, while the rest of us were still huddled around the fire.  
"If I'd just gone to save Sora earlier…" Taichi muttered.  
"Stop putting all of the blame on yourself! We couldn't help her either." Jou tried to speak some sense into him.  
"Yeah, I doubt we could've done anything even if we caught up with him." I added.  
"There must be something we can do." Yamato thought.  
"Guys!" Koushiro called out from the tunnel. "I've figured it out!" We all quickly got up and ran towards him. In the tunnel, Koushiro projected the map of the pyramid above us. "Nanomon only pretended to escape somewhere. The reality is that he hasn't gone very far at all."  
"Then…!"  
"Is he still inside that pyramid?" Taichi asked, looking somewhat relived.  
"Yes." He pressed a button that extended the map revealing another upside down pyramid that was below the right side up pyramid that resided underground. "I've found a hidden room that exists underneath the pyramid, in its deepest depths. There's no doubt that Nanomon and Sora are in there."  
"He was hiding right under Etemon's nose." Jou said. Got to hand it to him, he's clever. We just have to be smarter. Taichi walked up to the image.

"Sora's in there… Guys, I know it'll be dangerous, but I want to do whatever it takes to save Sora! So…"  
"We know, Taichi." interrupted Jou.  
"We feel the same." Yamato said.  
"We'll do whatever it takes to get her back." I spoke up.  
"Sora-san is a close friend among all of us here." Mimi chimed in.  
"Let's save her together." Takeru declared.  
"You guys…" Taichi was almost chocked up. "Okay! Tomorrow, we'll get Sora back!"  
"Yeah!" We all cheered.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

Ugh… what happened? Where am I? I opened my eyes to see the black celling of a room. I looked down a bit to see Piyomon clamped to the wall.  
"Piyomon!" I shouted before I noticed that I was clamped to some sort of table. Oh, this is not good at all.  
"It's best not to struggle." A familiar voice said. The lights then came on to reveal Nanomon standing on the console of a very large computer with a giant screen. "Piyomon has just lost consciousness… I still need her to defeat Etemon for me…"  
"Defeat Etemon?" I questioned. "Too bad for you, but Piyomon can't evolve without me."  
"I'm not planning on using you." He got to typing and I looked over to see a similar table on the other side of the room. Suddenly this orange beam came over me and placed itself above my feet.  
"What is this?!"  
"Watch and you'll understand." The other table started to do something strange until it started to fill in some shoes… all too familiar shoes… "It's copying you." I looked back in horror. "None of you have drawn out the power of your Crests at all." He pressed a button and a red Crest came out. The symbol was that of a heart. "That's why I'll use this copy of you to pull out that power."  
"My Crest! So you had it! Coward! Just because you can't win on your own, you take someone else's power!" He pressed another button and my Tag came out. "You even took my Tag!" The Crest slid into the Tag and shined red.  
"When I once fought against Etemon, I lost most of my memories in the process. These memories will no longer return. The only thing I can do now… is to exact my revenge on Etemon! By any means necessary!"

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Everyone else had already gone to sleep; they were planning on getting as much sleep for the rescue tomorrow. Meanwhile, I was outside the tunnel, unable to really get any sleep. I was still haunted by my hesitation and fear. I can't believe that I honestly thought I couldn't suffer any consequences with my body. Ever since we've landed on Server, I've been all over the place. From overconfident and pushing Agumon past his limits in the most harmful of ways, to being so scared of even getting him to evolve, to thinking myself invincible. I looked at my Crest. This thing has been the center of everything. Why can't I get Agumon to evolve to his Perfect form? What am I missing?

"Taichi?" I turned around to see Ross at the tunnel exit.  
"Shouldn't you be asleep right now?"  
"I'd ask you the same." He walked over and sat next to me, leaning back on the canyon wall just like me. "Listen, Taichi-"  
"I know I screwed up royally today. You don't need to say it."  
"I was gonna apologize for myself." I looked at him weird. "I shouldn't have said what I said. I just got so freaked out when you were off gallivanting without a single care of the danger. Yuuko-san asked me to keep you out trouble and you know…"  
"I didn't know Mom asked you that."  
"Yeah, she usually does."  
"Guess I really haven't been that trustworthy of keeping out of trouble lately, eh?"  
"Look, you made an honest mistake-"  
"A mistake that might bring harm to Sora!" We were silent for a few moments after that.

"Taichi, can I ask you something? Do you care for Sora?" What is he meaning by that?  
"Of course, she's a great friend; don't you care for her too?" He looked a little confused about my answer before he smiled.  
"Yeah. I do too." We both sighed.  
"Tomorrow is gonna be tough, huh?"  
"Oh yeah. I've already been thinking of some plans on how to pull off this rescue, just need to go over some details with Koushiro in the morning. As long as resistance isn't too heavy…" He muttered to himself at that last sentence.  
"Ross?"  
"Nothing. Just thinking ten steps ahead. Taichi, I want you to know something. No matter what happens tomorrow, I promise you, come hell or high water, I'll be by your side." I smiled back and held my hand out.  
"I'll hold you to that promise, because I know you're good for it." We shook hands before we got up and headed for sleep. Hang on, Sora. We're coming to get you.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+29. Morning._

Come morning, we were all set for breakout. Ross and Koushiro came to an agreement about the plan, but first, we needed some information. It's assumed that Etemon will probably be on some sort of high alert and will have something in the way of guards. Tentomon was sent out as a sort of aerial recon and relayed the information back to Koushiro. He then created a map of the outside of the pyramid that had red dots indicating guard Digimon of Tyranomon, Monochromon and Gazimon.

"As you can see here…" Koushiro began the briefing. "This is how the Digimon are currently positioned around the vicinity of the pyramid. It'll be impossible for us to sneak inside unnoticed."  
"Elvis is clearly worried about something or I doubt he'd need this much security." Ross added.  
"But we assumed this. Now here's the plan, we'll use decoys and diversionary tactics in order to lure Etemon's forces away from the pyramid. Taichi, Agumon, Ross, and Guilmon will use the chance to raid the pyramid to find Sora. Myself and Tentomon will also come in to guide the way." I nodded at the part I had to play.  
"Now, for everyone else's role. Jou-san, you and Ikkakumon are our heavy artillery. Harpoon Vulcan that place and leave not a single grain of sand un-bombed, got it?" Jou and Gomamon nodded. "They should start to pursue, and that's where Yamato and Garurumon come in. Split their forces, hit-and-run tactics, strike them then pull back but make sure you keep dragging them away from the pyramid. The last thing we need in there is for all those Digimon to reinforce the garrison."  
"Wow, Taichi wasn't kidding about that army stuff…" Mimi mumbled. "By the way, what do me and Palmon do?"  
"You two are to hold tight and back up Jou-san and Yamato-san." Koushiro said.  
"Mimi, look after Takeru for me, will you?" requested Yamato.  
"Okay."

"Direct me on where to go along the way, okay, Koushiro?" I asked him as I walked up and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Okay, but…"  
"What's the matter? Is it something bad?"  
"We need to go through this hidden passageway to get into the room, but the wall here is electrified, just like the place Nanomon was previously in." Oh no. What if… No, not again.  
"I'll save Sora this time."

We all got ready for the assault. This was gonna be tricky and one of us was definitely going to run into Etemon, but this was best plan we could come up with, and it has to work. Sora is depending on us. We all were at the edge of the sphinx's mouth, ready to move.  
"Saving Sora-kun is our first priority. Don't take on any unreasonable battles if you can help it." Jou reminded.  
"Okay." This time I didn't shrug him off like yesterday.  
"You guys should also avoid doing anything impractical." Koushiro added. "If Etemon shows up, we won't mind if you run."  
"We know." acknowledged Yamato. "Did you get that, Takeru?"  
"Yeah."  
"Let's all come back here safely." Mimi gave a thumb up. We all responded with a fist raised. We then hopped out and moved into position. The fight would come by us, so for Takeru, Mimi, and the raiding team, we took cover under a cream colored tarp that we found that blended with the sand.  
"Thank you." I told Mimi. "Sora…"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

From behind a dune, Jou and Ikkakumon were ready to launch the attack, if successful; most of the Digimon guarding the pyramid would come following the Chosen Children that were being decoys. "Okay, I think we've giving the others plenty of time to get into position, ready, Ikkakumon?" Jou asked.  
"Give the word, Jou!" He said.  
"Now!"  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" The large horned walrus began his attack, launching many missiles towards their target.

Inside the pyramid, the Gazimon in the control room were kicking back, thinking with all the security, no one would be crazy enough to attack the pyramid. They came to a rude awakening when the place began to rumble.  
"Wh-What's that?" "What's wrong?" What's going on?"  
"What is that commotion?!" Etemon ordered as he walked into the control room.  
"Ikkakumon is attacking, sir!"  
"What?!" Ikkakumon launched multiple missiles that struck all around the area. At that point, the guard Digimon began moving towards their attackers.  
"Th-They're coming." observed Jou. After a few more moment, Jou called it in. "Retreat!" The two of them began running out further into the desert.

Behind the marching column, lied in wait Yamato and Garurumon.  
"Now!" Yamato ordered. The wolf charged head and attacked from the rear.  
"Fox Fire!" Multiple Gazimon were thrown around from the attack before the wolf ran by into the desert.  
"There's another one over there!" A Gazimon said.  
"Come on! Follow us!" Yamato taunted.  
"After them! Don't let them escape!"  
"The Chosen Children are running away!" A Gazimon in the control room informed his leader.  
"What is going on?" Etemon questioned. "What are they plotting? Have you found where Nanomon is yet?"  
"I-I'm sorry, sir. Nanomon seems to have messed with the network, so its search functions have greatly destabilized."  
"Never mind. If you find him, make sure to contact me." He began to walk out.  
"Etemon-sama?"  
"I'm going to kill the nuisances I see before me first." He headed outside and got on top of his trailer. "I'll settle things with you all today!" He declared.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We all held our breath as we watched the trailer began to roll away from the pyramid.  
"Please get away safely." I prayed. We pulled the tarp off of us. "Koushiro, Ross, let's go!" They both nodded.  
"Be careful!" warned Mimi.  
"Okay!" I said as we ran off towards the pyramid. As we got closer, we looked for the entrance way. "It was around here, wasn't it? Here it is!" We ran inside and back into the cramped hallways of the building.  
"Be careful!" Koushiro informed as we kept running.  
"We have no idea what kind of damage we did during our escape and attack." Ross added.  
"Right, some of the passageways may be blocked now because of that!" We turned the corner and found the path blocked.  
"This is…" I muttered.  
"A dead end!" announced Agumon.  
"We'll have to leave this hidden passageway temporarily." Koushiro said.  
"Won't they spot us on the cameras?" Ross asked.  
"No choice now." I poked my head out of the hidden wall. "Looks okay." I said as we moved on.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Did something just show up on the monitor?" A control room Gazimon asked.  
"Maybe it's your imagination." dismissed another.  
"Maybe…" Back outside, the hit-and-run tactics were working. Both Chosen Children and their Digimon were pulling Etemon's force further away from the pyramid. But Etemon wasn't planning on letting them get away this time. Back at the tarp, Mimi crawled out of cover.  
"I'm still worried about Jou-senpai and the others. Let's go, Palmon."  
"Okay." One quick evolution later, Mimi and Togemon got ready to move.  
"Stay here, okay?" Mimi requested Takeru and Tokomon to stay put. The two said nothing as the girls left.  
"Dark Spirits!" Etemon yelled as he knocked away many of his own subordinates that stood in his way.  
"Wh-What's that?" Jou questioned.  
"You're all in my way! Move!" Etemon shouted.  
"Etemon!"  
"I will personally take down the Chosen Children!" He laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

The whole place began to rock and I had no idea why. The copy of me over on the other table was almost complete and I had a terrible feeling about my future once she was finished.  
"Those children are very perceptive." Nanomon informed. "It appears they've found out where I am located."  
"Then…" I guessed. "These impacts…" Oh please hurry, you guys.  
"They're holding a battle outside. Several of the children have entered the pyramid in the confusion." He chuckled. "But I will not let them interfere!"  
"Taichi…" I muttered.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Look! I knew it! It's the Chosen Children!" The suspicious Gazimon in the control room announced.  
"Damn it, when did they get in here?!" The other one questioned. Outside, Ikkakumon, with Jou on his back, was running as fast as he could.  
"Dark Spirits!" Etemon's attack landed in front of the two.  
"This way!" Ikkakumon said as they turned but Etemon was cutting them off above the dune.  
"You think you can escape from me?!" They stopped only for Yamato and Garurumon to approach from behind.  
"Fox Fire!" Etemon merely dodged the attack. Now, Togemon was joining the fray.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" The monkey easily swatted away all of the needles leaving the children dumbfounded.  
"I see you're showing up one after the other. Aren't there more of you? Where are they hiding?" Etemon questioned.  
"We don't need to tell you!" Yamato responded. Garurumon jumped forward but Etemon jumped up and grabbed the wolf by his tail and started to swing him around. "Garurumon!" The wolf was thrown to the ground in front of the blonde haired boy. Ikkakumon then tried to jump on the monkey but he just started to punch him up and down on his belly.  
"Ikkakumon!" Jou cried out. Ikkakumon was thrown right next to Garurumon.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" Etemon caught the needles in between his toes and fingers and threw them back at the launcher, sending Togemon straight to the ground in pain.  
"Togemon!" Mimi yelled.

"I was just a little off my guard yesterday, but you're not getting away from me this time!" The musical Digimon informed. He pulled out his microphone and the Digimon knew what was coming next. "Love Serenade! YEAH!" The Digimon cringed in pain.  
"M-My strength..." Ikkakumon choked out before they all devolved to their Child-Level.  
"It's disappearing!" Togemon moaned.  
"Now you're finished. Dark…" Etemon was about to finish them off before a loudspeaker at the pyramid made a feedback sound.  
"Etemon-sama!" The loudspeaker relayed. "We have trouble! The rest of the Chosen Children have invaded the pyramid!"  
"What?! Why would they do that?" He thought back to yesterday. "Does that mean Nanomon is still inside the pyramid? Am I right?" He turned around to find the children had vanished. "Ehh! Wait a second! Where did you go?! Answer my question! Eh, they won't be able to fight for a while in their current state anyway. I'll savor my time killing you off later!" He ran back to the pyramid. As for the kids, Takeru had snuck up with the tarp and the others hid from Etemon with it.  
"You're a big help, Takeru." praised Yamato.  
"Tokomon helped out too."  
"Thanks, Tokomon." Jou said to the Baby Digimon.  
"But Taichi and the others…" Yamato reminded the rest of them.  
"I'm sure they're in the middle of saving Sora-san right now." Mimi believed.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Warning sounds were going off all over and Gazimon were running all over the place. We must have been spotted on the cameras.  
"I guess they know we're here." Tentomon observed.  
"Just when we've almost made it." Koushiro said disappointedly. We walked over to another hallway. "When you turn right, the wall directly ahead of you is the hidden passageway to Nanomon's room."  
"Damn it…" I muttered, before suddenly the roof caved in to reveal Etemon! We ran through the wall but he merely smashed it down.  
"I've found you!" He shouted. "Tell me where Nanomon is!"  
"Taichi-san, Ross-san! Tentomon and I will do something to hold him back! Hurry up and save Sora-san!"  
"Ross, help him out!" I ordered.  
"But…" He clearly was thinking back to the promise last night.  
"He needs you more!" Ross reluctantly nodded.  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!"  
"Guilmon, evolve!" GROWMON!"  
"Take care of it, you two!" I yelled as Agumon and I ran forward.  
"Wait!" Etemon cried before being blocked by the two Adult-Level Digimon.

We ran through another false wall and down some stairs until we finally reached it. The electrified fence.  
"She's on the other side." I told Agumon. I then slowly walked forward before stopping and staring at it.  
"I'll go first." Agumon offered.  
"Wait, Agumon."  
"Taichi?"  
"I'll go." I walked forward. "There's something very precious to me on the other side of this wall."  
"You mean Sora?"  
"Yeah. But that's not all. I feel like there's something else very precious over there that I'd lost yesterday." I slowly started to reach my hand out.  
"Taichi… You can do it, Taichi! Bring out your courage!" He's right. I have to be brave. If I mess up, that's it, I'm dead. But I can't let fear rule me. That's what stopped me yesterday.

And it's not stopping me today!

I shouted as I pushed my hand forward. When I didn't feel any pain, I knew I had chosen right.  
"I did it!"  
"All right!" As soon as that happened, Etemon, Kabuterimon and Growmon had rolled down the stairs and it was clear the monkey was all but victorious.  
"Etemon!"  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!"  
"Taichi! Now!" He charged forward in order to help the others as well as buy me some more time to save Sora.  
"Okay!" I ran through the fence to whatever awaited on the other side.

What I saw on the other side wasn't what I was expecting. It was a very large room with a large computer console and a huge screen. And right in front of me was Sora and Nanomon.  
"Sora!"  
"That one's a fake!" Piyomon called out. I stopped running towards her and looked over to Piyomon clamped to the wall and Sora was clamped to a table. "He made a copy of Sora!" That would explain the blank look in her eyes.  
"Taichi!" Sora yelled out.  
"S-Sora!" I stuttered, somewhat ashamed I fell for the fake, if even for a moment.  
"I've just finished creating the copy." Nanomon explained.  
"Why?!" I questioned. "Etemon was both our enemy, why did you betray us and do all this? We could've helped you!"  
"You're right; we both shared a common enemy but you children were unable to activate your Crests in order to properly fight Etemon. That's the first reason. The second… well, I have some big plans after that stupid monkey is out of the picture that I'm afraid you children would be opposed to. An alliance was going to fall out eventually so why bother keeping up the charade for so long." Looks like Ross was once again right. Nanomon was merely planning on usurping and taking control of Etemon's empire once he was dealt with. "Now if I give the holy device and Crest, this copy of the girl will become the real one!" An arm pulled out Sora's Digivice and Tag that now had her Crest in it and was slowly moving towards the fake.  
"I won't let that happen!" I ran forward and pulled the Digivice and Crest away from the arm.  
"What are you doing?!"  
"These belong to Sora!"

"If you give her those, you will mess up my plans!" Suddenly, the floor below her opened up and she began falling.  
"TAICHI!" She screamed. No! I won't let her die after all I've done today! I ran faster than I ever had before.  
"Sora!" I reached out and managed to grab her hand. I looked below and saw an amalgamation of wires down below in the pit. "Wh-What is this…?"  
"It's the main source of the evil powers that make up Etemon's network." Nanomon informed as he walked up to us. "Everything that falls in there will be absorbed by the darkness. It won't leave a scrap of you behind! I have no use for the original!" He reached out and began crushing both our arms but we held on for dear life. "Time to get rid of you!"  
"Sora! Sora!" cried Piyomon.  
"You don't want me to kill her? Give me back the holy device and Crest!" I needed to come up with a plan or we might both end up dead. I then got one.  
"Quit talking nonsense! I came here to save Sora!" I used my free hand that had the Digivice and Crest in it and dropped it down.  
"No way!" screamed Nanomon, because just as I planned, Sora caught them both.  
"Taichi!" Sora thanked before her Digivice glowed.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!"

Birdramon easily destroyed her restraints and flew over us before grabbing us in her talons and saving us like we were Frodo and Samwise.  
"Oh no!" Nanomon feared. She flew right towards the wall where we could hear Etemon on the other side.  
"Come on, try and attack me from any angle!" He bragged. Imagine his surprised when we dropped the wall on him and caused him to be electrocuted.  
"Taichi!" yelled Greymon.  
"Sora-san!" Koushiro cried out.  
"You're all right!" relieved Ross.  
"Sorry for worrying you!" She apologized.  
"Let's get out of here, guys!" I suggested. We quickly busted our way out of the pyramid and found the rest of the gang coming right towards us.  
"You guys!" Sora waved. We all said our respective hellos and cheers before we went through with the final part of our plan: getting out of the area.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Etemon recovered himself as he shook off the pain that he had gone through. He never truly suspected how much electrical force he had in those barriers. He walked in and saw Nanomon staring at the fake Sora.  
"My, my. Playing with dolls in a place like this?" taunted Etemon. Nanomon, without the Digivice or Crest, deleted the fake Sora because she was now useless without those items. "The children got away from me again, but at least I'll kill you here. Give yourself up, Nanomon." Nanomon suddenly began to laugh maniacally. "What? What's so funny?"  
"My dear Etemon, did you truly think that I'd simply roll over and die for you? The girl was one of the best plans I had to end your existence, but I have others." Suddenly the floor began to move as the hole that he tried to drop Sora and Taichi in widened.  
"Ahh!" Etemon freaked out and tried to jump to the console but Nanomon fell with the floor and grabbed him by the leg, preventing him from clearing the jump to the console and hang from it for dear life.  
"I wished I could destroy you and take over your reign, but I'll be fine with this! You're coming with me!"  
"Let go of me! I refuse to die with you!"  
"Plug Bomb!" Nanomon launched his attack to the tangled mess of wires below.  
"Where are you aiming? Still got a few screwed up wires in you, don't you?"  
"You're greatly mistaken if you think that was a normal Plug Bomb. They contained a computer virus that amasses the evil powers into a concentrated ball as it enlarges!"  
"Then…" The virus was beginning to grow in force as it was now dragging anything outside in its gravity well. Many Digimon outside that had been defeated in the battle were being dragged into the well of evil and deleted on contact, fueling its growth.  
"This is the end for you! I'll see you in Hell!" Nanomon maniacally laughed again as Etemon was losing his grip.  
"Damn it…" He lost his grip and the both of them fell to the monstrosity of evil below. However, while Nanomon was deleted on contact, still laughing even at the end, Etemon wasn't deleted. Instead, it seemed more like the wires were merging with him.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We had no idea what the hell was happening inside that pyramid, but something was clearly wrong. Powerful winds were dragging many of Etemon's goons back towards the pyramid and it's assumed that it can't be good. We were running back towards the sphinx on our Digimon though some of us had to ride with others.  
"What's going on?" Jou yelled out.  
"It's convenient that this allows us to escape from them!" Koushiro thanked.  
"Look at the pyramid!" shouted Takeru. We looked back and saw beams of black and green light break through from the dune hill we stood on.  
"Wh-What's happening to it?" Taichi asked. The whole pyramid collapsed and we soon got our answer. Rising from the rubble was a large mess of black wires that were pulsating and the all too familiar laugh of Etemon.  
"I won't be defeated from the likes of this!" He cried out across the desert.  
"E-Etemon!" Taichi stuttered. We were all dumbfounded. Somehow he merged with his own network.  
"Nanomon chose to die on his own, but now it's your turn!"  
"Damn it!"

"Meteor Wing!" "Mega Blaster!" Birdramon and Kabuterimon launched attacks at the ball but it did nothing.  
"That's enough to loosen up my stiff shoulders." The monkey taunted. "Let me pay you for that. Dark Spirits!" The two flying Digimon had to fly out of the way to avoid being hit and good thing too because the attack hit a ridge and the whole thing began to swirl into some sort of black hole. Another attack and the sphinx was a victim of the same fate.  
"The Sphinx!" Mimi cried.  
"We have nowhere left to run!" Koushiro informed.  
"If he keeps this up, the entire world will become a mess!" Sora feared.  
"And our fate will be sealed." I added.  
"But there's no way we can win against him!" Jou said.

"No. We still have one way left." Taichi informed. "Let's go, Greymon!"  
"Okay, Taichi!" The two of them charged forward.  
"What are they doing!?" questioned Yamato. I know what he's doing. He plans on buying the rest of us time to escape; just as I tried to do for Takeru when Leomon and Ogremon attacked us at the Village of Beginnings. But I felt torn. He clearly wants to do this himself, but I think back to yesterday. _'No matter what happens tomorrow, I promise you, come hell or high water, I'll be by your side.'_ Well, there's only one thing for me to do now. He's not doing this alone.

I'm honoring my promise!

"Growmon! We go too!" I shouted as I ran after Taichi.  
"Right with you, Ross!" Growmon followed.  
"No, wait!" I heard Sora call out but I ignored her.  
"Taichi!" I yelled as I caught up.  
"Ross! What are you doing?"  
"What does it look like? I told you, hell or high water, I'm sticking with you!"  
"Ross…" He smiled; he truly appreciated what I was doing. "So we both go down swinging?"  
"Wouldn't have it any other way." I then noticed his chest. "Taichi! Your chest." He looked down and pulled out his Crest which was now glowing orange. He looked shocked, he actually finally got it to glow. He looked back at me.  
"Ross, you too!" He pointed. I looked down and saw the same happening to me. I pulled out my Crest as well and saw it was glowing silver. We both got it to react. We looked at each other before nodding. This was the end, but for Etemon, not for us! We charged forward with our Crests in hand.

"You still want to fight?" Etemon laughed.  
"I won't run away! I never will!" Taichi declared.  
"I'll keep fighting! Even till the end!" I yelled.  
"I'm telling you, it's hopeless! Dark Spirits!" He threw two balls of energy that crashed into our two Digimon and sent them to the ground.  
"Don't ever give up, Greymon!" "Keep fighting until it's over, Growmon!"  
"Taichi, your courage… I can feel its power surging through my body!" Greymon informed.  
"I've never felt so much power before! Ross... your strength is flowing through me!" Growmon said. This was it. We did it. Both of them were evolving to the Perfect-Level.

Our Digivices changed colors as they shot a light towards our Crests before reflecting back towards our Digimon. Taichi's Digivice turned orange with the buttons glowing blue, while mine turned silver with the buttons becoming navy blue colored.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" We were shocked. This was a true evolution. MetalGreymon didn't look too different; he still looked like Greymon with some changes. His whole left arm was removed and replaced with a mechanical arm, his brown skull that he wore was not coated in a strong looking metal and some red hair. He also now had some wings, and finally, his chest was armored similar to Andromon's chest. For MegaloGrowmon, he was a bit more different. The lower part of his body was the same but that's where it ended. His whole upper body had now been mechanized; on his back were two Vernier thrusters and a long cable in the middle that had to be some sort of weapon. His arms were either removed or encased in large black metal arms with two giant pendulum blades attached to the sides. Finally, he was wearing a mask on the lower part of his jaw.

"Woah." We both muttered.  
"This is… Greymon's true evolution!" Taichi shouted.  
"Looks like we both got it right!" I told him.  
"Just because you evolved a little further… doesn't mean you can win against me!" boasted Etemon. He threw two more Dark Spirits but MetalGreymon destroyed his with his metal claw while MegaloGrowmon dealt with his using his arm blades. Now the tide had turned! "What?!" Elvis panicked. Both Digimon charged straight forward.  
"MetalGreymon!" "MegaloGrowmon!" Both of them rammed the wire ball and shoved Etemon back.  
"The nerve of you two! I'll trample you both!" Both of the Digimon began to glow and we felt the wind pick up and had to get on the ground without getting blown away. MegaloGrowmon's rear boosters activated and he was propelled forward.  
"Double Edge!" He cried out as his blades glowed pure white before slicing through the wire ball. The whole front of it came apart revealing a glowing black and red core at the center.  
"Ahh!" Etemon screamed in pain. Now it was MetalGreymon's turn.  
"Giga Destroyer!" MetalGreymon roared as his chest compartment opened up and launched two organic missiles straight at the exposed core. The missiles impacted and created a massive and blinding explosion.  
"I-It hit?! I'm a big star! I can't die here…!" Etemon shouted his last words.

What should've been a time of celebration turned out to be a dark moment, as Etemon turned into a black hole like his attacks did and started to drag Taichi and me across the sand directly towards it!  
"Taichi!" "Ross!" Both of our Digimon placed their claws in front of us to keep us from being dragged to our doom.  
"Metal…Greymon…!" "Megalo…Growmon…!" We both muttered before both Digimon were claimed by the gravity well and sent all of us towards it. As we were flying towards our doom screaming, both Taichi and I reached out and grabbed each other's hands, at least we meet our deaths together.

I don't know what I was expecting at the end. Was there going to be nothing but pure darkness or we're we on our way to meet St. Peter at the gates? Imagine the surprise when I saw nothing but pure light even with my eyes closed. Suddenly, I heard some sounds… was that… an airplane? I felt like I was standing up and I slowly opened my eyes before they widened wider than I ever thought possible. I was seeing in front of me, people… lots of people.  
"Ross…" Taichi asked.  
"Yeah…" I choked out.  
"This is… home…"

Somehow, we actually did it. We made it back home. Right…?

* * *

That... was... so... fun! I loved writing this chapter! The original name of the chapter was supposed to be 'Evolution to Perfect! MetalGreymon and MegaloGrowmon!' but I wanted to keep it a bit of surprise.

So a few things I got to get out. First, originally, Ross was supposed to accompany Taichi down to Nanomon's room because I had an idea for the fake Sora. I was more planning on using her like the Human Replica Droid Guri, Prince Xizor's bodyguard and assassin from Shadows of the Empire. Taichi was trying to keep Sora from falling to her death, while Ross was being strangled by the fake until he finds a rock and bashes her head before running towards the console and deleting her. But rewatching the episode, that idea kinda went down.

Next, is something I see in a lot of 'Eighth' Chosen Child stories, is that their OCs are always left behind with the rest of the gang. I wanted to do something different and that's the whole reason why Ross is so close with Taichi and why Growmon evolves before they end up back in Odaiba. And as I said at the start of this story, this is the strongest Guilmon gets... for now. *Winks*

Anyways, next chapter will be on the 9th and it is one of my favorite episodes. Take care, everyone!

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	23. The Great Clash in Tokyo!

Chapter 22, based off of one of my favorite episodes of the show. Sorry for the delay, was watching some playthroughs of the original Medal of Honor games, then Big Trouble in Little China was on TV, and that's in my top 10 favorite films of all time. 'Okay, sit tight, hold the fort, and keep the home fires burning and if we're not back by dawn, call the President.'

Man, there was a lot of new faces (That I know of) showing up. You guys must have enjoyed the last chapter. Thanks **near-fan-90** , **Amazing Spectacular Spider Man** , **SAYURI-CHAN21** , **Bchts** , **RoboticGaming** , and **Petor** for your favs and follows.

Anyways, let's see an old face we've missed for a while, shall we?

* * *

 **Chapter 22: Koromon and Gigimon! The Great Clash in Tokyo!**

 _Odaiba District?, Minato Ward?, Tokyo?, Japan? August 30_ _st_ _, 1999? Morning?  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. If this was some kinda of joke, it was a cruel one. But I was staring ahead with my jaw dropped as I swear I was standing in the park that was nearby the apartment, at least I think. For all we know, this might just be another illusion but a nagging voice in the back of my head was telling me otherwise.

"Th-There are humans everywhere!" A quick check revealed that both MetalGreymon and MegaloGrowmon were with us, though they had reverted back to their Baby-Level because that was Koromon's voice.  
"I've never seen so many…" Gigimon muttered.  
"Is this really what I think it is?" I asked.  
"It can't be…" Taichi said. It might not, but somehow, there were people everywhere; kids playing with each other, adults doing their daily routine, basically a typical morning in Japan. "It can't be…" Taichi repeated. "We've come back to our own world? Did we win?!"  
"I think so… can't think of any other reason why not."  
"This isn't… a dream, is it? Ow!" He rubbed his arm after I pinched him. "Thanks." I nodded.  
"Taichi…" Koromon was about to say something until he got nailed by a ball that a little girl had kicked and was thrown into Gigimon.

"Hey!" Taichi called out to her. "Where are we? Japan? Or are we still in the Digimon world?" The girl looked completely lost before looking down towards Koromon and Gigimon.  
"Where's Etemon? And the others?!" Koromon demanded.  
"Uh, Koromon, I don't think…" Gigimon trailed off.  
"Hey, answer me! Please!" Taichi shouted at the girl. The only response we got was the girl began to cry.  
"Mama!" She yelled as she ran off.  
"That might not be good for us." I pointed out.  
"Taichi, you shouldn't make her cry like that!" talked down Koromon.  
"No, you idiot! She's crying because she saw you!"  
"Me!?" He freaked out, and Gigimon's face did the same look as he remembered he talked too. We looked around and saw we had attracted much of the crowd's attention.

"What is that thing?" "Did it just talk?" "What's going on?"  
"Are we scary?" Koromon asked. "Hey, are we scary?!" He called out to the crowd. Taichi quickly muffled Koromon and I did the same to Gigimon.  
"Don't talk, you two! You'll stand out." Taichi whispered.  
"Come on; let's get out of here before we draw more undue attention." I suggested as we ran off.  
"But are we scary?! Are we? Are we? Are we?" Koromon asked again.  
"Be quiet, Koromon!" Gigimon tried to shut him up. The both of us clamped their mouths so they would shut up as we ran out of the park.

It was becoming clear that we in fact did return back to our world and more specifically, Odaiba as we saw the all too familiar sights of the Fuji TV building and the Daikanransha Ferris wheel. We ran further away from the park until we reached the rail line, Odaiba Seaside Park Station.  
"Odaiba…" Taichi muttered. "There's no doubt about it now! We're near our place!"  
"Your place?"  
"We're back in Japan! We're back!" Taichi then grabbed me in an over the shoulder hug with his free arm as we both had our respective Digimon in our other arms.  
"We did it! We really did it!" I cheered. Although we may have had a bit of a strong grip as both our Digimon started to make sounds indicating we may have been squeezing them a bit too hard.  
"It must be because we got sucked into that rift. That's got to be the reason!" Taichi guessed.  
"It's also probably the reason why you two are back to your Baby-Levels as well." I added.  
"We did it!" We both shouted. Both Digimon smiled.  
"That's great, guys!" Koromon responded.  
"Glad we could help!" Gigimon said.  
"We did it! We did it!" Taichi shoved Koromon in his face and started rubbing him face-to-face, while myself and Gigimon just looked at him odd.

A minute or two later, we found ourselves staring the apartment building where we lived.  
"Take a look, you two." Taichi said to the Digimon. "This is my place."  
"No way! It's BIG!" Koromon awed.  
"That all belongs to you?" Gigimon asked. I laughed.  
"No, it's an apartment, thousands of people live here. Though what do you expect in city with a metro population of thirty-five million packed together like sardines?" I explained.  
"Come on, let's go home." Taichi insisted as we walked towards the entrance and eventually the elevator.  
"Hey, Taichi, you know what this reminds me of?"  
"Let me guess, that cover version of _'Everytime You Go Away'_ from _**Planes, Trains, & Automobiles**_ is playing in your head because this reminds you of the end of the film." I stared at him.  
"Have I become that predictable?" He started to laugh as we got onto the elevator.  
"What was that about?" Gigimon questioned.  
"Oh, don't worry. You'll find out soon enough. After all, we've got a ton of movies to watch." I told him.  
"I look forward to watching them."

We finally got to the front door. Wow, I can't believe I could actually do that. For a while, it looked like we'd never get home but here we are. All we have to do is open the door, sit on the couch and the nightmare, well; bad dream I guess, would be over.  
"I wonder how Mom and Dad are doing." Taichi muttered.  
"Yeah, same with my Dad as well." I added.  
"We've been completely off the radar, so they must be really worried about us."  
"Taichi, hurry up and greet them!" Koromon insisted.  
"Yeah, you're right!" He reached for the door knob and it opened right up. "Huh?" Was he confused that the door was unlocked. "But come to think of it… How long have we been in the other world? A month? A year? Or maybe even…"  
"A month, Taichi. I counted the days. Arrival-Day plus Twenty-Nine meaning today should be August 30st. Actually, we're back just before school starts again." I interrupted his whole trail of thought.  
"Are you sure? Maybe Mom and Dad have already forgotten about me. What'll I do if I open this door and some complete stranger comes out, asking who we are?" Okay, he's thinking way too much about all this.  
"Taichi? Are you okay?" Koromon asked the same thing I was gonna say.  
"May I make a suggestion? Just open the door and we'll find out your questions." Gigimon suggested.  
"Oh… yeah…" Taichi then opened the door.

"We're ho-... I mean, excuse us!" Taichi called out. We walked forward and saw on the floor three pairs of sandals, belonging to Susumu, Yuuko, and Hikari. The whole apartment was quiet as the door closed behind us and was dark with the only light coming from the outside patio that illuminated much of the house. "Hey… This _is_ my house!" I shook my head. It's only been thirty days, Taichi. He saw me shaking my head before trying to regain his composure. "I mean, of course it is!" He nervously chuckled.  
"It's much smaller than it looked." Koromon observed. That made Taichi upset.  
"Shut up!"  
"Knock it off you two. Come on, I'm thirsty." I said as I walked over to the refrigerator. I opened it up and saw a sight I thought I'd never see. Over a half a dozen Dr. Peppers were sitting on the shelf. I grabbed a Coca-Cola and handed that to Taichi before I grabbed my Dr. Pepper. We both opened them before clanking them together.  
"Cheers." We both said as we both began to drink.  
"Does that taste good?" Koromon asked.  
"Well, does it?" Gigimon also asked.  
"Delicious!" Taichi declared. "How long has it been since I had a Coke?"  
"Oh, twenty-three different flavors, how I missed you!" Taichi quickly gave me the weird look after I said that. "Shut up."  
"Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme…" Both Digimon cried out. Looks like they were thirsty too.  
"We really are back in our own world…" Taichi muttered under his breath.

Normally, I'm really stingy when it comes to sharing my Dr. Peppers but after everything that Gigimon had done for me, he deserved it. Both Taichi and I, wanting to quiet the two Digimon, gave them the rest of our drinks.  
"What day is it today? You said it should be the 30st, right?" Taichi asked me. I nodded. "Guess so, still looks like summer." He closed the refrigerator before looking at. "Ah!" He shouted. Both Digimon coughed up the drinks.  
"What happened?!" "What's wrong, Taichi?!"  
"Ross! Look at the calendar! It's August… Today is still August 1st, 1999!" My eyes widened.  
"What!?" I shoved him aside to look at the day by day calendar that was on the fridge and sure enough, it said it was the said day.  
"So?" "What do you mean?" Both Digimon questioned.  
"August 1st, 1999 was the day…" Taichi began.  
"When this whole Digimon business began!" I finished. No words were said for the next few moments.

"What's going on?" Taichi wondered aloud. "We spent days, weeks, a month, being in the other world… We walked for so many days… We fought with so many Digimon… So why is it still August 1st?"  
"Look at the time, Taichi." I pointed to clock. It read that it was 8:30, and with the sun still rising, that meant it was still morning. "That freak snowstorm was somehow only an hour ago! I just had breakfast with Takeo within two! What the hell is happening?!" I raised my voice.  
"Did I become so homesick that I'm dreaming I'm here right now? Or maybe the time I spent in the other world was all a dream, and I'd really collapsed in the park?"  
"Uh, Taichi, it was no dream. There's no way we'd share the same one, and the two Digimon on the counter also disprove that."  
"Well, then do you have an explanation?" I kept quiet; I couldn't even remotely answer that.  
"Taichi. Taichi. Taichi!" Koromon tried to get his attention. We then heard the sounds of footsteps from another room.  
"Wha-?" Taichi muttered. The sound of a door opening echoed through the halls and we turned to the sound… to see Hikari in her pajamas leaning against the door frame to her and Taichi's room.

"Hikari…" Taichi greeted.  
"Onii-chan… Ross-chan… you're back home already…" She said.  
"Y-Yeah…"  
"Onii-chan… Is she your little sister?" Koromon asked. Taichi quickly smothered him.  
"I told you not to talk!"  
"Yeah, don't say anything." Gigimon reminded. I did the same action to him.  
"Same goes for you!"  
"Hikari, It's not what you think! These guys are…" Taichi tried to say something before Hikari interrupted him.  
"Koromon is with you?" What?! We quickly did a double-take of looking at each other before looking back at her. "Koromon came with you."  
"You're… You're not scared of him?"  
"Why should I be?"  
"How do you even know his name anyway?"  
"Because… Koromon is Koromon."  
"Wait, Hikari. Do you know who this?" I picked up Gigimon. She shook her head.  
"No, sorry." She apologized. I don't know if we should be thankful or offended. Still, how on earth did she know who Koromon was?

A minute later she began playing patty cake with Koromon and Gigimon on the couch. That was kind of difficult for Gigimon because while the antennae on Koromon's head could be used like arms, Gigimon's head wings were stationary. Thankfully, Hikari accommodated this and patted his head before patting Koromon's antennae.  
"Hikari… You've been home all this time, right?" Taichi asked.  
"I still have a cold, but it's much better than yesterday."  
"You didn't go to the other world or something like we did, did you?"  
"The other world?"  
"Ugh, never mind. Hey, where are Mom and Dad?"  
"They went to visit Grandma. They said that the other day, remember?"  
"Oh… Oh yeah, they did."  
"And left you behind, even with your cold?" I questioned.  
"They said I'd be fine and they'll be back later today." Really? Even after that time… No, don't bring it up, it's in the past. "So, why are you guys at home?" She questioned.  
"Because… um… because I was worried about you." Taichi lied. I face palmed.  
"Uh huh… and you brought Ross-chan back with you?" She clearly wasn't buying it, she was a smart girl.  
"Well, you know…" Taichi walked up to her and took off his gloves. He then put his hand to his head and his other one to Hikari's.

"Has your fever gone down?"  
"Onii-chan. Where did you really go? By that 'other world' you mean the world where Koromon and the red one is, right?" Taichi hesitated to answer Hikari.  
"Well, first, I'd like to say my name is Gigimon, and it's nice to meet you, Hikari." Gigimon finally introduced himself.  
"Please to meet you, Gigimon." She paused. "Onii-chan, Ross-chan, you two weren't in camp like everyone else, were you?"  
"Well… It's a long story, Hikari, and I'll be happy to explain. I don't know why Taichi is trying to pull the wool over your eyes." He looked at me with a hurt face. "She knows who Koromon is and she was just playing patty cake with the two of them; I think the cat is out of the bag here."  
"Fine, go ahead." He relented.  
"See, we got to camp yesterday, and this morning a snowstorm hit and then we and some other kids-"  
"That's right!" Taichi interrupted. "Maybe Yamato and the others came back here."  
"Oh, right. I almost forgot about them."  
"Go get me the directory, and I'll call their homes." I nodded and went to my room with Gigimon following.

As I opened the door to my room, well, it was the guest room and Susumu's workspace but since Dad went missing, it became my room; an all too familiar guest was waiting at the door.  
"Drew-boy!" My loyal Black English Cocker Spaniel was sitting by the door and panting while wagging his stubby tail. I kneeled down and he started licking me on the cheek. "Alright, buddy! Easy! Easy! I missed ya too!" I laughed. He kept licking me until he noticed Gigimon behind me; he stopped and then stared at the small Digimon.  
"Uh, Ross?"  
"Easy, Gigimon. Don't make a sudden move. This is my dog, Drew. Drew, this is Gigimon, he's my Digimon partner." Drew walked up to him and started sniffing him. After a few moments, he licked Gigimon. "Hey, he likes you."  
"That's good. I thought he was gonna bite."  
"Nah, he doesn't do that. You don't bite, do ya? Do ya?" I rubbed his belly and he fell over on his back.  
"Ross! Directory!" Taichi called out. Right. I ran over to Susumu's workstation and grabbed the latest school phone book. I then motioned Drew to go back into the room before I closed the door on him. You leave the door open for too long, he starts to bolt all over the place. I walked back to Taichi and opened it to start looking for the numbers to relay to him.  
"You taking care of Drew and Miko, Hikari?" I asked her as I was flipping through the pages.  
"Yeah, Miko's in Mom and Dad's room and she has her litter box, and I was going to take Drew outside on the porch for his business." Nice to always get a reminder that Hikari is great with pets. I placed Gigimon on the table right next to where Koromon was sitting.  
"Here, Taichi. I found Koushiro's number." I told him before giving the number which he proceeded to dial.

 _Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 0838 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Uh, hello. This is Yagami. Is Koushiro there?" I paused for a few seconds after talking into the speaker, waiting for an answer. "Camp? Oh, no, I came back home midway and… Yes, sorry!" I hung up.  
"Don't tell 'em you went to camp and came back! Let's keep this whole Digital World thing on the down low. Now, Koushiro ain't back yet?" Ross complained. I nodded in agreement. Probably should keep the Digimon a secret, at least to the other's parents. "Alright, let's try the next one." I then began dialing the next number which was Sora's.  
"Hello, is Sora…? I see." Sora's not back either. Next was Yamato's. "Is Yamato there? Oh…" After that I just gave up. I then stared at my Digivice in my hand. _"No one's back. Are those guys still in the other world? Or maybe I really am the only one who's dreaming? No, wait, there's Ross. But what exactly is real, anymore? Or is everything real or a dream?"_ I thought to myself.  
"Onii-chan. Ross-chan." Hikari got our attention. She lifted the cloth that was on the table to reveal some prepared food that Mom must have made for her while our folks were out. "Do you want to eat this? I only have my share, but we can split it."  
"Wah, food!" Koromon shouted.  
"Koromon, that's for them, not us." Gigimon tried to tell him.  
"Thanks, Hikari… but I got a better idea. Just wait a minute." I walked over to the kitchen and started to get out some eggs that I'd use to make us some omelets.

"Hey, what do you guys want on omelets?" I asked.  
"Soy sauce, please, Onii-chan." Hikari answered.  
"Ketchup for me." Ross replied. "Listen, Taichi, maybe the others just aren't back yet. I'm sure that if we made it then the others did too. They'll probably be calling us or coming over in the next few hours."  
"Yeah, I guess you may be right." I shrugged.  
"I tell you what, I'm glad this whole thing is over. And we get some added bonuses, we don't lose anytime so we still have a summer vacation, nobody got worried about us, and I get to welcome Dad back. Plus, we get to bring home our Digimon."  
"I hear that. Though what about our stuff at camp?"  
"It'll be hard to explain why were suddenly back home after showing up to camp, but we'll cross that bridge later; as for our stuff, I'll call the camp later and get Takeo to bring it back."  
"So, what's this other world like?" Hikari asked.  
"Let me tell you, it's amazing and terrifying at the same time. The land is lush and vast; tall jungles, thick forests, wide deserts, mountains and hills straight out of a Bob Ross painting. I feel that was the same feeling that the Europeans had when they discovered the Great Plains of America."  
"So what's the terrifying part?"  
"All the giant monsters trying to kill you. We had way too many close calls; at first it was just some Digimon acting like wild animals then it got worse when we started to encounter more malicious types."  
"That doesn't sound too good." Hikari said with disappointment in her voice.  
"I'm just glad you got sick." I told her. "I can't imagine how scared I would've been had you been there with us." I then put the final touches on the food before moving them to the table.

"All done!" I declared. We all said a quick prayer before we got started.  
"Let's eat!" All of us but Hikari said. We all then began to chow down like we had been starving for weeks. I admit, our eating manners were probably quite terrible, but we didn't care. It had been too long since we had any food that we normally ate. Hikari took a small bite of her food.  
"It's good." She said.  
"Really?"  
"Were you always this good at cooking?"  
"Our friend, Yamato, he taught me how to in the other world… I mean, I could always do something out of eggs!"  
"Yeah, but this time, you've out done yourself." Ross praised. She slid over her plate.  
"You can have this too."  
"Really?!" Koromon didn't wait as he started downing that plate too. After a couple of minutes, we had cleaned off all the plates of food and were stuffed.

"That was a great meal!" Koromon and I cried.  
"That was delicious." Gigimon cheered.  
"It's been too long since we've had a meal like that." reminded Ross.  
"I'm stuffed!" I informed. "I can't eat anymore!"  
"Taichi…!" I looked up and saw Koromon with a strange looking face.  
"Koromon… What's wrong?" concerned Hikari.  
"Hey, Koromon! Koromon!" I shouted. What was wrong with him? We found out the answer as pooped on the table.  
"Sorry, Taichi." Ugh, what is wrong with his bowel system? I could see Ross getting up and going to the kitchen to get the cleaning solutions to clean the table.  
"Here, I'll take him to the bathroom." Hikari offered while me and Ross cleaned the table.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

I picked up Koromon off of the table and it was proven that he indeed messed himself as his 'waste' was sitting on the table. I took him to the bathroom with Gigimon following and put Koromon on the commode while me and Gigimon waited outside the door.  
"I'm sorry, Hikari." Koromon apologized. "I'm helpless when it comes to holding it."  
"You've always done that for as long as I've known you." Gigimon muttered. I guess these two have some history.  
"I already know." I referred back to Koromon's problem.  
"Oh."  
"I know how you feel, though. I used to wet the bed a lot, but Taichi would always help me. He'd wash my underwear for me in the middle of the night, and later he'd pretend he was the one who wet the bed to spare me the embarrassment from Mom and Dad. He did that for months until he got caught sneaking back into the apartment."  
"Wow that was nice of him." Gigimon said.  
"Yep, he really is."

"What about Ross?" The little red creature asked.  
"Oh, he's just as great as Taichi. I actually used to call him Onii-chan as well, but he insisted on at least Ross-chan. Even though we're not blood, I still see him as a kind and caring older brother. I always loved it when he'd read stories whenever Dad was not home in time. He'd used to put on performances and voices when he read books for me and Taichi would always join in. Still, I wish he trusted me."  
"What do you mean, Hikari?" Koromon questioned.  
"He's really depressed. He likes to think that he's kept it a secret, but I've known for some time. I heard him talking to himself or Drew about it in his room some months ago. I didn't say anything because I thought, maybe he'd tell us when he was ready… but that hasn't come."  
"Ross…" Gigimon seemed hurt. Maybe he knew something was off about Ross too.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Taichi laid down on the couch while I slouched back on the chair as we both began to relax. He then proceeded to pull up the remote to the TV and turned it on to some travel commercial to Hawaii. He then grabbed the controls to the AC unit and turned that on as well. The nice cool breeze was a welcomed relief.  
"Such a cool breeze." He said. "Home is great… how long has it been since?"  
"One month, Taichi, I keep telling you. But I agree, there's no place like home."  
"You know, I shouldn't really say that, it's weird. After all, today is still August 1st."  
"Yeah, that's gonna take some time to get used to that."  
"I don't care which is the dream and which is real anymore." Is he still on that idea?  
"And we once again come to our top story for today." The news came on the TV. I almost wanted to pull the remote out of Taichi's hands after he closed his eyes and turn it to something else, but I decided not to bother him. "We continue to follow and see the abnormal weather patterns that the globe has been having as of late." Ugh, this story again? "In Southeast Asia, the war-torn paddy fields have dried up from drought. This has become a major problem for the local population and Allied-Occupation forces including our own Self-Defense Forces that are trying to rebuild the region." I looked over to the TV and my eyes suddenly widened when I saw it.  
"TAICHI!"  
"WHAT!? What happened!?" He jumped up.  
"Look at the TV! Tell me I'm not seeing this!" On the screen, out in the rice fields was a large, familiar creature engulfed in flames.  
"That's…!" Taichi muttered.  
"Meramon!" We both yelled.  
"Heavy rains are savagely flooding the Middle East." The report continued, with a familiar sea serpent on screen.  
"What's Seadramon doing in the Euphrates!?" I questioned.  
"In North America, snow is falling even though it is the middle of summer." Standing on a roof was a well-known snow creature.  
"Yukidarumon is New York!" Taichi observed. "It's not due to abnormal weather at all."  
"The rift from the Digimon's world is affecting our world!" We both concluded.

"Are you able to see them now too?" Hikari said. We turned to look at her. She had Koromon in her arms and Gigimon on her head.  
"You can see them?" Taichi questioned.  
"I have for a while now. But if I told anyone about it, no one would believe me." I felt disappointed, both that she didn't trust us to tell us, and that even if she did, we wouldn't believe her.  
"Hikari…"  
"How long since you've seen them?" I asked.  
"About a week now, I think. At least since the weather became weird." That proves it, all of this is related to the Digimon, but how did Hikari know about all of this? How did she see them without going to the Digital World?  
"This is nuts." I exclaimed. "Even though I've lived an extra month, technically, I was seeing those exact same images with Takeo in the camp cafeteria less than a few hours ago, and I distinctly remember not seeing Digimon on the screen!"  
"Ross-chan…"

Suddenly all the power went out in the apartment; the TV shut off and the AC died. Taichi and I looked at each other before we looked at our Digivices and saw the screens were glowing green. The power soon returned to the computer we had over by the dinner table that was the one we had the games on.  
"Onii-chan! Ross-chan! Look…" Hikari drew our attention towards the screen.  
"-san-" Wait, is that…? "Taichi-san-Ross-san-"  
"Kou… Koushiro…!" Taichi yelled. We both ran over to the screen to see Koushiro was on the screen, though the connection was terrible and looked slightly off, like his eyes were blank, although that might just be the screen. Taichi then grabbed the screen. "Koushiro! It's us! Taichi and Ross!"  
"-chi-san-Ross-where-you right-" We assumed he was asking where we are.  
"At home! We're back in the real world!" I told him.  
"Koromon and Gigimon are with us." Taichi added.  
"I see-then over here-"  
"Hey, Koushiro! We can't hear you!"  
"You-not com-back here-please-"  
"Koushiro! Koushiro!" We shouted before the screen went dead.

We were silent for what felt like an eternity. Taichi just stared at his Digivice yet again.  
"Taichi?" "Ross?" Our Digimon questioned.  
"What's going on? Both this place and that place… Neither of them are a dream." I was going to say something about that but kept quiet. "Both of them are real. Both are real… We're over here… They're over there… Hey, Koromon? Is it all right for just me to be here?"  
"Taichi… but…" I think I know what's going on. Now that we're home, Taichi is exhausted and wants to stay behind, and deep down, so do I. They say a man is at the peak of his effectiveness in the first ninety days of combat, then after that he slowly starts become less valuable until he's useless. All of us Chosen Children, we had no experience of what we had to do, so what was our effectiveness? Everyone has a breaking point…. Has Taichi almost reached his? Have I almost reached mine?  
"Yeah, you're right. We don't know how to go back…" Both Digimon seemed depressed by the news.  
"Onii-chan… Want to eat some watermelon?" Hikari asked, trying to cheer him up.  
"No thanks, Hikari…" He then proceeded to walk towards his room.  
"I'll go talk to him." I told Hikari as I went to the refrigerator and got some slices of watermelon on a plate before I took it to their room.

Taichi was lying on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed as I walked over and sat at one of the rolling chairs by the desk where they would do their homework. I placed the plate down and I heard him sigh.  
"So, it appears that both worlds are connected in some way. The problems of the Digital World are pouring into ours. And there's the fact that the others are still back there." I began.  
"Worrying about them won't do any good…"  
"Really? Now that you're home, it doesn't matter what happens to them?"  
"I didn't say that. I said there's nothing we can do. Besides, I'm sure they'll be fine without us."  
"And what about the Digimon coming into our world? What do we do about that?"  
"What can we do? Let someone else do it. I'm done."  
"So that's it, huh? The moment you get home, you just stopping caring even while the world is starting to burn?" That set him off. He quickly stood up and stared daggers at me.  
"Don't you even think for a moment that I don't care!" He poked me in the chest. "We went through things that no kid should go through! We had to sleep with one eye open, we walked hundreds of miles, and we had to worry about when our next meal was coming. Now that we're finally home after trying so hard to get back, you're trying to tell me we need to go back to that nightmare. My problem is that I'm just tired!"  
"Your problem? Ha! I wish I had your problems! YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO TRIED TO JUMP OFF THE ROOF!" Oh, damn it. That one slipped. Both our eyes widened.

"Wh-What? What did you just say?"  
"I…" I couldn't speak.  
"Ross… why?"  
"Because… I've been depressed for almost two years now." The truth finally came out.  
"When did you try to do this?" Taichi was utterly shocked.  
"You all were out one day in November last year, the 12th to be exact. I just, thought I couldn't keep going so I tried to jump off the roof. I only need to take one more step, but I couldn't. When I couldn't, I just got back down and walked back to the apartment."  
"But why? Why did you try to kill yourself? Why are you depressed?"  
"I don't want to talk about it."  
"Don't want to talk about?! Good God, Ross! You tried to kill yourself, I think now would be the time to talk!" I couldn't say anything more. He wouldn't understand.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

We could all hear what was being yelled in the room. I knew Ross was depressed, but I didn't think it went that far. To think, that one day he'd be here and wouldn't be here the next… the same goes for Taichi. I don't know where I would be without the two of them. Both Koromon and Gigimon were eating watermelon but stopped when we heard the yelling.  
"Come on, you two. Let's just keep eating." I told them. They nodded before they went back to chomping the melons down.  
"Hikari! This watermelon thing is delicious!" Koromon said as he ate the food.  
"I agree. This is amazing!" Gigimon added.  
"Koromon. Gigimon."  
"Hmm?" The both said.  
"You guys can have all of it." The both got excited.  
"Really?!" They cried. They kept on eating.  
"Guys? Onii-chan doesn't have to go back, does he?" Koromon stopped eating. "Ross-chan either… especially since…" Now, Gigimon stopped eating. "You can stay here with us, you two." I paused. "All of you should stay here." They both looked sad, like they were homesick. The quiet was broken as the phone rang.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

I kept staring at Ross, but he refused to say anything else. We were interrupted when the phone rang and we walked out of the room.  
"This isn't over." I told him. We opened the door and saw Hikari had answered it.  
"Yeah… Yeah, it's okay…" I took the phone away from her to listen to it.  
"Make sure to take your medicine." I heard Mom's voice on the other end of the line. "We're all right. Both Grandma and Grandpa are fine, but they're worried about you. When you feel better, they want you to come visit. With Taichi, of course." When Hikari didn't say anything because I took the phone from her, Mom got concerned. "Hello? Hikari? Are you listening?"  
"Mom…" I finally spoke.  
"Huh? Taichi, is that y-…?" I hung up.  
"What is wrong with you!?" Ross questioned, angry that I had given away the fact we were here.  
"As opposed to you?" Gigimon countered. Ross' face darkened before he just looked down in guilt. "Wait, I'm sorry."  
"No, it's fine." He sighed.

As for me, everything just piled on at once for me. The fact we were back home after trying to get back, the fact that both worlds were connected, and the fact that the others were still stuck there. It all got to be too much.  
"Hey, Koromon… Gigimon… You can stay here forever."  
"Taichi…" Koromon concerned.  
"As long as you stay here, you don't have to fight. You guys can eat food and candy whenever you want. You can sleep in a bed every night, and you can take a bath every day. Mom might get angry sometimes, but whatever happens, we'll protect you. Even Dad…" I just started to tense up.  
"Taichi…" Ross said.  
"It's summer vacation! We're on summer vacation right now! We haven't gone to the ocean yet, and there's still the fireworks festival… I have to do my homework too!" I looked down at the Digivice. "I went to the other world because of this thing. Who cares if it's a holy device or whatever! This thing can just…!" I lifted it up and was prepared smash the thing on the floor.

I was stopped when the ground began to shake.  
"Wh-What's that?" I asked. Both Ross and I went outside onto the patio to look into the bay. A large explosion of water shot upward before it revealed a pure red dinosaur. "That's…!"  
"Tyranomon!" Ross finished. He turned his head before he launched a fireball that crashed into the Rainbow Bridge.  
"Damn it!" I shouted as we ran for the door to get our shoes, Ross' backpack, and put our gloves in our pockets. Koromon and Gigimon quickly followed close behind.  
"Wait!" Hikari called out.  
"Hikari… You stay here!" I ordered.  
"But…"  
"Please do as we say!" Ross insisted as we ran out the door with our Digimon in hand.

We ran as fast as we could down to the waterfront before Tyranomon began to vanish.  
"He… He disappeared…" I muttered. Another rumble nearby and explosion revealed yet another off colored Digimon.  
"Drimogemon!" Ross and I shouted. We ran by the nearby electronics store that had all its TV's on display. The TV's were broadcasting earthquake warnings for 9:02 A.M. We ran close to Drimogemon's location before he vanished as well.  
"H-He disappeared too!" I said.  
"We interrupt this program to bring you information on the earthquake here in Hodo Center." The TV broadcasted. "The epicenter was in Odaiba, from the Minato district…"  
"It wasn't an earthquake." Ross countered the TV's response.  
"Normal people can't see the Digimon!" I told him. He nodded in agreement.  
"Looks like they haven't fully crossed over or something, but they sure as hell can affect their surroundings. The weather was just the start. At this rate, things…"  
"Things will turn even more dangerous if we leave things alone…"

"Taichi?" Koromon spoke up. "I'm going back to where everyone else is." Koromon hopped out of my arms.  
"I'm coming with you, Koromon." Gigimon added as he did the same.  
"Guys…" Ross tried to talk them out of their plans.  
"Look around, you two! We don't belong here!"  
"Digimon aren't allowed in this world." Koromon added. "We're Digimon too, so we can't stay here."  
"Koromon! Gigimon!" I said. "How can you say that?! Don't say that you're going back!"  
"Onii-chan! Ross-chan!" We turned around to see Hikari, still in her pajamas, running towards us.  
"Hikari! We told you not to come out!"  
"But..."  
"Go home! Hurry!" ordered Ross.  
"But, you guys…!"  
"Taichi, Ross!" Koromon yelled.  
"Look over there!" Gigimon turned our attention across the street to where a bunch of people were, and behind them, an all green Ogremon.

"O-Ogremon!" I stuttered. We both put ourselves in front of Hikari to shield her. He just stood there and stared at us, while the crosswalk light was red. "Wh-What do we do? Ogremon is in the city!"  
"Why is he just standing there?" Ross questioned.  
"If we don't do something… He'll drag everyone into danger!" The light turned green and he leapt towards us. He brought his club down on the sidewalk and nearly crushed our Digimon but they jumped out of the way. Both of us shielded Hikari from the debris.  
"You okay?" I asked her.  
"Where's Koromon and Gigimon?" She wondered.  
"Gigimon!" "Koromon! Where are you?" We called out.  
"Over there!" Hikari pointed upwards. All three Digimon were hopping up the patios and ledges of a nearby building. Both of them used bubble attacks on the mad Digimon but they did little to stop him.  
"Koromon!" "Gigimon!"  
"Taichi, Ross! Get away from here!" Koromon ordered.  
"We'll hold him off!" Gigimon informed.  
"Don't do this on your own! We've always fought together!" I yelled.  
"He's right! Why does that change now?!" Ross added.  
"Taichi…"  
"Koromon, look out!" Hikari warned. Koromon bounced off the wall of a building but was smacked by the club and began falling. Gigimon was in no better situation as he flew right towards Ogremon and was swatted away to the ground as well.

"Koromon!" "Gigimon!" We shouted for our respective partners. Our Digivices began to glow at the same time.  
"Koromon, evolve! AGUMON!" "Gigimon, evolve! GUILMON!" A giant hole of light opened up in the sky above us and started to begin dragging up debris.  
"This is… Agumon!" "Guilmon!" Both our Digimon landed on a nearby stoplight. Ogremon jumped down towards them, but the used their fire attacks to hit him in midair and send him flying towards that light in the sky.  
"You did it!" I informed. Suddenly, the gravity well began to affect the two of them as they began to float up as well. This light must be a gateway back to the Digital World, it had to be.  
"Agumon!" "Guilmon!"  
"Taichi… Hikari… Ross… Bye bye." We heard them both say as the vanished in the air.

"Agumon, Guilmon, wait! We're going too…!" I yelled out. I knew for a fact Ross was coming too. We had no choice; this was something we had to see through to the end. We both ran forward to follow but were stopped. We turned to see Hikari hanging on to both our arms. "Hikari... We'll… We'll make sure to come back! If we don't go with them…" I held the Digivice tight as it was glowing.  
"Where we're going, you can't follow." Ross told her.  
"You guys promise you'll be back?" She asked disappointedly.  
"We'll be back before dinner." He promised. We all gather close and had a group hug. I felt sad having to say goodbye, but if we don't do this, then the world will only get worse. I felt myself getting pulled upward by the Digivice in my hand and saw the same was happening to Ross.  
"Get better soon." I said to her.  
"Ross-chan… Onii-chan…" She held on to us for a few more moments before she first let go of Ross and then myself. The last thing I saw as I floated towards the sky was the sad look on her face before the whole world went white.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

My whole world was dark. I began to regain consciousness as I felt the hot sun burning down on me when I opened my eyes to see a familiar desert. I looked over to see Taichi beginning to stir as well and Guilmon and Agumon looking at the both of us.  
"Hey, Taichi. Up and at 'em." I shook him. I helped him up and we both looked forward out in to the vast desert.  
"We're back." Agumon said.  
"Yeah." Taichi agreed.  
"I wonder where the others are?" Guilmon questioned.  
"They're somewhere out there, we'll find them." I assured.  
"Was this really for the best?" Agumon wondered.  
"We'll definitely go back home one day… After we've done what we're meant to do." Taichi proclaimed as we started walk ahead.

He's right, we'll come back home someday…

* * *

And that was Chapter 22. I loved writing this was as well as the last one.

Anyways, I'll see you guys on the 12th. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	24. The Whispering Little Demon!

Chapter 23! Sorry for delay. Curse my easily distracted mind!

Shout out to **Gem Rose** for your fav. And to **MadDogLucario96** for your review. Yes, out of context, you have your point, but we all know what she meant. At least it's not like Always Sunny where out of context, it's insane, in context, it's insane.

One last thing, the episode focuses on misunderstandings, and on my 80s playlist, Genesis's _'_ _Misunderstanding'_ was playing so, nice.

Anyways, here's the next chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 23: The Whispering Little Demon! PicoDevimon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+29? Evening.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

Our return back to the Digital World wasn't exactly a warm welcome. We knew something was off when we arrived in the same area that we defeated Etemon but the others were not there. We quickly decided to try and look for them, but my worries were how the hell do we find them in this vast continent? After searching for the entire day, we finally came across an oasis where we could eat and rest for the night.

"Here you go." Taichi handed me some fruit.  
"Thanks, man." He sat down next to me.  
"So, what do you think we need to do?"  
"About what?"  
"About saving the world. If we don't fix things here, then our world just gets worse."  
"Well, I think the first thing we should do, is find the others. The only problem is we don't know where they are."  
"I'm sure they're around here somewhere." Agumon believed.  
"Yeah, they couldn't have gotten too far, could they?" asked Guilmon.  
"I don't know." I muttered.

"Hey, Ross, can we talk about… you know."  
"Look, Taichi, I said I don't want to talk about it. If you're worried about me trying to off myself again, relax, I'm not trying that again."  
"This is something we really need to talk about."  
"And I told you, I don't want to. You wouldn't understand anyways."  
"Come on, Ross. Look, at least just tell me why you're depressed. You don't even need to tell me right now, but at least let me in." He begged. I sighed. He already knows so maybe I might as well, but not now.  
"Fine… Give me some days to think hard about it and then I'll tell you."  
"I won't pester you, but you're gonna have to tell me sooner or later because you did promise." He smiled. Oh, you crafty... I laughed.  
"Alright, you caught me there." After that we more or less talked about non-important issues before we headed to sleep. We spent the next two days searching throughout the desert until we finally caught a lead on the morning of our third full day of searching.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+32? Morning._

Of course the day had to have started rough for us as we were in the middle of a sandstorm when we came across some ruins. Lucky Taichi and his goggles.  
"Hey! Where are you, guys?" Taichi called out.  
"Is anyone out there?" I added.  
"Hey!" Agumon shouted.  
"Somebody! Anybody!" Guilmon yelled. The sandstorm began to die down and we could start to see clear. Taichi pulled up his goggles while I wiped away my glasses.  
"No one's here." Taichi informed.  
"I'm starting to get worried, Taichi." Agumon expressed.  
"Yeah, what happens if we don't find them?" concerned Guilmon.  
"There's got to be some sign of them, we just haven't found it yet." I told them.

Our big break came when we started to hear a weird beeping noise. We all looked at each other.  
"What's that?" Taichi wondered. We pulled out our Digivices and saw that on the screen was a map and three red dots, two right beside each other and one further ahead.  
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked.  
"The Digivices are reacting to something." We turned our devices in a different direction and the far red dot vanished. "What's this mean?"  
"I think it might be some sort of tracking system. Look, two dots are beside each other, that has to be us."  
"I think you might be right. It's only reacting when I turn in this direction." We began walking forward.  
"Everyone must be over there. I'm sure of it!" Agumon suggested.  
"Even if not, it's still the best led we've gotten." Guilmon added.  
"Come on; let's head in the direction where it's beeping." We followed Taichi further through the desert.

After walking a few kilometers, we came across a nice cool forest and a river.  
"I didn't know there was a river in this area."  
"Since there's a river here, that must mean we're near the edge of the desert." Agumon believed.  
"At least we're getting out of it; I'm getting pretty tired of sand." I bemoaned. We stopped when came across a bridge that was above the river and nearby a lake.  
"There's a bridge!" observed Agumon. "Is that the ocean?" He was referring to the large body of water.  
"It's not an ocean! It's a lake!" Taichi informed him.  
"Come on, let's move!" Guilmon insisted and we sprinted across the bridge. "That signal is coming from somewhere near the lake!"  
"You're right! The signal's getting stronger! They're close by!" Taichi said. We ran through the forest until we came across a clearing by the lake. And lying on the ground was a familiar creature.  
"It's Tokomon!" Our two Digimon cried out.

"Tokomon! Hang in there! Are you okay?" Taichi ran up and picked up the small Digimon.  
"Taichi…" The small Digimon slowly opened his eyes. "Ross! Agumon! Guilmon! You're alive!"  
"Of course we are."  
"Gonna take more than a simple wormhole to kill us." I bragged. Guilmon rolled his eyes.  
"What exactly happened?" Guilmon inquired.  
"More importantly, did you get beaten by the enemy, Tokomon?" Agumon questioned.  
"No, I wasn't. I collapsed because I was just so hungry and tired." He hopped out of Taichi's arms.  
"Where's Takeru? And the others?" Taichi asked the important question. When we found Tokomon, we found a Digivice that must've belonged to Takeru because his Crest and Tag was here as well.  
"Takeru is with PicoDevimon."  
"PicoDevimon? Who's that?" Why would Takeru be with a creature with Devimon in its name?  
"PicoDevimon is… um…"  
"Tell us everything from the beginning. What happened to everyone while we've been away?" Taichi requested.  
"Like how long we've been gone?" I asked.  
"I counted the days since you've vanished. It's been over sixty-three days since you disappeared." Sixty-three? Guess that means it's A-Day+92 then. "As for what happened in between, well, after you four were gone, we…" He began to recount his tale.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+73. Evening.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

"Let's look for them! Let's keep looking for Taichi and Ross until we find them!" Sora insisted to the others around the campfire.  
"It's impossible. We've already been searching for a month and a half. There's no trace of them anywhere." Yamato summed up.  
"Gennai-san… he should know something!" Koushiro suggested. "Let's go look for Gennai-san!"  
"We don't even know where he is." Jou reminded. "How would we begin to find him?"  
"I just want to go home." Mimi said. Takeru yawned as it was clear that the gang was tired.

By nightfall, everyone was fast asleep. Tokomon was still half asleep when he woke up to see Sora and Piyomon near him.  
"Takeru will cry if we don't tell him." Sora said. When Tokomon got on his feet, she merely shushed him. "The two of us are going to look for Taichi and Ross."  
"Take care, Tokomon." Piyomon told him. Tokomon just yawned before he fell back asleep as they walked away. Come morning, the others were shocked and disappointed that Sora had left them and the cracks that had formed in the group only began to widen. Tokomon explained how the others began to go their separate ways over the next few days. The next to leave was Koushiro and Tentomon who went off in search of Gennai. Then, there was Jou and Gomamon who went off in search for any people; he never really got that idea out of his system. Mimi and Palmon parted in search for some food until the only ones who were left were the brothers and their Digimon.

Both brothers came across the lake and were standing on the bridge looking at the river.  
"Hey, Onii-chan. I wonder where everyone went."  
"You don't need to worry about them. They can take care of themselves. We don't have any more enemies like Devimon and Etemon either."  
"Onii-chan! Let's go back! Let's go back and look for Taichi-san and Ross-san!" Yamato seemed to get upset by that suggestion.  
"We've already looked everywhere! Just give up!"  
"But…" Tears began to form in the young blonde's eyes as he started to cry.  
"I'm sorry! Don't cry, Takeru! I'm sure Taichi and Ross are doing fine somewhere."  
"They're alive, right?" Takeru hoped. "Taichi-san and Ross-san are alive, right?" Yamato smiled.  
"Yeah. We'll see them again someday."  
"Isn't that great, Takeru?" Takeru just ran up and hugged his older sibling as he cried some more.

As they walked through the forest, they came across an unusual sight.  
"That's… Could that be an amusement park?" Takeru wondered.  
"We can have some fun!" Gabumon cheered.  
" _That place looks safe."_ thought Yamato. They walked through a field of flowers before they finally arrived at the park, although the whole place was deserted, which was somewhat odd as the whole park looked well maintained. As they wandered through more of the park, they came across a dock with a swan paddle boat next to it. Yamato saw this as an opportunity to see what else was around, especially on the other side of the lake; however, he was going to have to leave Takeru behind.

"I'll be okay." The young boy put on a brave face. "I'll wait."  
"Good boy, Takeru."  
"But come back quickly, okay?"  
"Okay. I'm just going to check things out. It shouldn't take more than two or three hours. I'll be back before you know it."  
"Make sure to take good care of Takeru, Tokomon." Gabumon said. Tokomon nodded. They watched as the two left across the lake.  
"Onii-chan! Come back soon!" Takeru called out as they waved.  
"We're counting on you, Tokomon!" Gabumon yelled as the boat vanished into the lake mist.

The hours began to pass and it was getting close to nightfall and Yamato still hadn't returned. Takeru sat out on the dock waiting for him as Tokomon brought him some fruit for dinner.  
"Takeru! Time for dinner!"  
"Onii-chan is late…"  
"Eat some food."  
"I'm not hungry." He eventually ate and then fell asleep on a bench with leaves as his blanket. Tokomon explained this happened two weeks ago. Takeru sat on the dock and waited until something happened three days ago.

"Why won't Onii-chan come back?" Takeru questioned before he began to cry.  
"Takeru!" Tokomon worried as he came back with some berries.  
"Onii-chan… Onii-chan said he was just going to take a look around… He said he'd be back soon!" He completely broke down after that.  
"Don't cry, Takeru!"  
"Oh my, what do we have here?" A bat like creature flew up to the duo. "Hello there. I'm PicoDevimon."  
"PicoDevimon?" Tokomon questioned the Child-Level bat.  
"Oh? Could you be the ones who got rid of Etemon for us?"  
"Yeah."  
"Thank you! Peace has returned to this world because of you! But why were you crying?"  
"My brother won't come back." Takeru explained.  
"Why, that's quite a fix! Very well, I'll go look for him! What's your brother's name?"  
"He's called Yamato."  
"Okay. Wait right here!" The bat took off across the lake.  
"I hope he finds him." Tokomon said.  
"Yeah." Takeru nodded.

After a few hours of waiting, the two of them could see PicoDevimon flying back towards them.  
"Sorry to keep you waiting!"  
"Where's my brother?" Takeru kept high hopes. "Did you find him?"  
"Yes, I did."  
"Where was he?"  
"I have a message from Yamato."  
"What is it?"  
"Yamato said that he doesn't want to see your face anymore. He said he really, really, _really_ hates you. He doesn't want to be your brother anymore." Those words hurt. For Takeru, it felt like he had been shot.  
"No way…" Takeru had tears on the edge of his eyes as he was about to cry again.  
"Takeru, don't cry!" Tokomon tried to assure him.  
"Oh, Yamato also said this. He _really_ hates you for being a crybaby." Those words set of Takeru's crying as he broke down once again and ran away.  
"Takeru!" Tokomon chased after him.  
"Well, me too! Me too! I hate you, Onii-chan!" Takeru screamed.

Takeru stopped crying after a while and was sitting on the edge of the lake, tossing rocks into them, hoping they'd skip.  
"Hey… Hey… Yamato would never say that about you." Tokomon tried to tell him. "Hey, Takeru." He decided to privately talk to PicoDevimon one-on-one.  
"What'd you want to talk about?"  
"Don't lie to Takeru!" Tokomon accused the bat Digimon.  
"Lie? What did I lie about?"  
"You said Yamato hated Takeru!"  
"Oh? How is that a lie? Do you have any proof it isn't? If you've got proof, show me." He said as he floated up to a tree branch. Tokomon was kinda stuck; he had a point about the proof.  
"I don't have that, but…"  
"So in other words, you're suspecting me without any justification! Know something? That's called 'defamation.' You make false judgements based on the situation. How about it; want to take this to court and see if you'll win?" Tokomon had enough and shot a bubble at him that knocked him out of the tree as Takeru ran up.

"What are you doing, Tokomon?!" Takeru questioned.  
"What do you mean?"  
"You just attacked him for no reason!"  
"Takeru, don't blame Tokomon." PicoDevimon flew over. "He was just jealous that you and I are getting along, and he reacted like the child he is. Right, Tokomon?" Tokomon turned his head away in anger.  
"What's with that attitude?! Apologize to PicoDevimon!"  
"No! I won't!"  
"Apologize!"  
"Never! If you're going to force me to apologize to him, then I'm leaving!"  
"Oh really? Then leave!" Tokomon was shocked by the response.  
"You want me to leave?"  
"Go ahead." Tokomon started to walk away before he turned back around.  
"I'm really leaving."  
"Fine. Oh yeah! Since we don't have any more enemies, I don't need these!" Takeru pulled out his Crest and Digivice before throwing them to the ground. "Let's go, PicoDevimon!" He then ran off back towards the park with PicoDevimon in tow.  
"Takeru, you idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Tokomon yelled before he began crying.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+92. Late Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

"So that's why you were alone here." Agumon summed up.  
"Yeah." Tokomon nodded.  
"Wow, what a mess we've caused." Guilmon felt guilty.  
"We turn our backs away for even a second and everything falls apart." I mumbled.  
"I'm worried about Yamato, but we need to see Takeru first. Take us to the amusement park where Takeru is, Tokomon." Taichi requested.  
"Okay."  
"Here, I'll let you ride on my head." I offered and picked up the Baby-Level Digimon and placed him on my head.  
"Thank you." He said as we started walking towards the park. After a few minutes, we finally came towards the edge of the park.  
"So that's the place." Taichi asked.  
"Yep. Takeru and PicoDevimon should be there."  
"Well, let's go show Takeru that we're okay, and then deal with PicoDevimon." suggested Guilmon.  
"Right." We all agreed.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Not all of Etemon's forces had been consumed and destroyed by the amalgamation of Etemon and his Dark Network at the pyramid. There were still plenty of smaller forces around, however, without proper leadership and chain of command, they were essentially written off as a major threat. Best they could manage was to hassle some Digimon or cause some minor trouble, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with. Two Gazimon that were loyal to the proclaimed King of Digimon were dashing through the same forest that several of the Chosen Children were in.

"How do we get revenge for Etemon-sama?" One Gazimon asked the other.  
"Can you even do it? These guys are really strong."  
"Yeah, we might not be enough to stop them."  
"Let's just give up." Without Etemon in command and driving fear into them, the loyalty of the Gazimon was quite flimsy. "We're not obligated to go that far."  
"Yeah. Come to think of it, he was always walking all over us."  
"Anyway, you feeling hungry?"  
"Yeah, I am." They turned to find a large pile of mushrooms growing in the clearing.  
"Oh, these mushrooms look good!"  
"Let's have some!" They picked two up and began to ate, unaware of the consequences of doing so.

Back in the amusement park, PicoDevimon had been playing around with Takeru for the past two and half days now ever since their fight with Tokomon. Both of them were on the Ferris wheel though Takeru wasn't looking too happy.  
"Wah, this is fun!" PicoDevimon cheered. "We're up so high; it's like walking through the sky. Look, the lake stretches so far out there. Enjoying yourself?"  
"Not really."  
" _Crap, he's still worried about Tokomon."_ If anyone was to think that PicoDevimon was on the level, they'd be wrong. The Digimon was nothing but trouble that Takeru had sadly fell for. "Hey, Takeru! Do you want to go driving?"  
"Okay…" The two of them went to the track but Takeru still wasn't having fun.  
"Go! Go! Drive! Drive! Isn't this fun? Doesn't it feel exciting? Next is the roller coaster!" The roller coaster was a train. "Getting ready for departure! Yahoo! Having fun?"  
"Yeah…" Takeru muttered.  
" _No good. He's not getting into it. This is bad."_ The bat thought to himself. "Hey, Takeru. Are you still thinking about Tokomon?"  
"Who cares about him?! I was just wondering if he's okay by himself… But I really don't care about him at all!"  
" _He still can't forget about Tokomon after all. I've got to do something."_ PicoDevimon thought to himself once more. "Ah, Takeru. I just remembered I have something to do."  
"Like what?"  
"Oh, it's nothing big! I'll be right back!" He took off towards the forest.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We dashed through the park as fast as we could, hoping that Takeru was still somewhere around here.  
"Takeru, where are you?" Taichi asked, more to himself though.  
"Takeru!" Agumon called out.  
"Hey, Takeru!" shouted Guilmon.  
"Where are you, kid?" I yelled.  
"Takeru!" Taichi called. Sure enough, we found the kid sleeping at a table under an umbrella before he woke up and his eyes widened as he saw us running towards him.  
"Ta-Taichi-san! Ross-san! You're alive!" Takeru was so happy to see us.  
"We won't die that easily!" Taichi boasted.  
"Takes a lot more to slow us down." I added. He ran up to us and embraced Taichi before he moved over to do that same to me.  
"Thank goodness! I'm so glad you're alive! I was worried! I was really worried about you guys!"  
"Sorry for worrying you." Taichi apologized. Tokomon jumped off my head and landed towards the ground.  
"You're back, Tokomon."  
"Yeah."  
"Do you realize now what you did wrong?"  
"I didn't do anything wrong!"  
"Tokomon! When did you start getting that attitude?"

"Now, now." Taichi stepped in between to play mediator. "Tokomon told us everything that's happened. This isn't the time to be disagreeing among friends."  
"He's right. Besides, we've discovered some pretty big news that you're gonna want to hear." I told him.  
"Yeah, we'll tell you as we go look for Yamato and the others!"  
"No!" The young blonde turned his back to us.  
"Why?"  
"Everyone left me. First it was Sora-san… And then… and then in the end, even my own brother…"  
"I'm sure he had a reason for that."  
"Maybe his boat sank or something… or maybe they got lost. But I'm sure he didn't abandon you." I tried to console.  
"No! Everyone hates me! They hate me because I'm a kid and I cry easily!"

"What lies has that rat with wings been feeding you?" I questioned. Taichi placed his hand up telling me to pipe down for a second. Maybe I'm being a bit too antagonistic at the moment.  
"I don't know what PicoDevimon told you…" Taichi began to speak. "But there's no way Yamato would hate you!"  
"You think so?" Takeru didn't seem too convinced. "But whenever I get along with either one of you, Onii-chan gets a nasty look on his face." Yamato thanked me for watching out for you when we got scattered on File Island, I didn't know he resented me for protecting you. "Even when I told him we should look for you two, he was against it! He started hating me because I kept talking about you guys, especially you, Taichi-san! Taichi-san! I want to be _your_ younger brother!" He ran up to Taichi to hug him once more.  
"Um, well, that's a little…" "Well, you know, we…" Both of us were coming up with excuses.  
"Can't I?" He asked.  
"No, I mean, it's not that, but… This is a problem." Taichi muttered.

"Hey, Takeru? Would you mind catching up with the others? I need to talk to Taichi for a moment." I requested. It took a moment but Takeru eventually relented and talked with Agumon and Guilmon, though he still wasn't talking much with Tokomon. Taichi and I walked away just far enough to still be easily seen but not to be heard. "This is quite the mess."  
"I know. Takeru's a wreck. And now he wants to call me 'Onii-chan'?"  
"We can put some blame on Yamato, getting jealous of either one of us getting along with Takeru, but more so with his sheer vanishing. The other is the words that PicoDevimon has been saying. Something's off about him… He may just be a mere troublemaker that likes to ruin friendships, but I can't be too sure."  
"I agree. So what should we do about Takeru?"  
"I say we talk him out of the whole brother thing but if we can't, we go along with it, until we find Yamato. But Taichi… I'm worried. Call it my pessimistic side, but what happens in the off chance that we find Yamato and PicoDevimon was telling the truth?"  
"Well, that's really unlikely, but if it is true… then to hell with Yamato. If he can't realize how great it is to be the big brother to a kid like Takeru, then he doesn't deserve him. But I think PicoDevimon is lying and that Yamato will be more than happy to see Takeru. So, let's just allow Takeru to have his wish for now if we can't convince him otherwise until we find the others." We both nodded in agreement and went back to Takeru to explain to him the situation of both searching for the others and the problems of both worlds.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

PicoDevimon had flown far into the forest before he finally came across the two Gazimon in the mushroom patch.  
"Oh?" He wondered. "Aren't you guys Etemon's followers?"  
"Etemon?" One of the Gazimon inquired.  
"Who's that?" The other one asked.  
"Do you know?"  
"Dunno."  
"By the way, who are you?"  
"Who am I? I forgot."  
"What's wrong with you?" PicoDevimon questioned. He took a closer look at the mushrooms and got his answer. "Ah, these are the Mushrooms of Forgetfulness. One bite of these and you forget all of your past memories. I see, you must've eaten them." He picked them up. "Wait a second, that's it! If I make Takeru eat these…" He flew off snickering as he felt that his plan would succeed.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We explain what was going on to Takeru. The boy was both surprised and somewhat excited about our news. He was happy to know that at least no time had passed back home so he wasn't worrying his parents. We came to the conclusion that one day in the Digital World is a minute back home. Of course he was also disappointed that with Digimon crossing over, it meant we had more fighting on our hands in the future. We also explained about the whole Yamato and the others and how we were going to look for them. We even convinced him to not consider Taichi his older brother, out of respect to Yamato, and that it wouldn't probably help anyone otherwise down the road. We did not need any more animosity in the group.

"In any case, let's look for Yamato and hear what he has to say face-to-face." Taichi concluded and Takeru nodded. Good timing too as the infamous PicoDevimon we heard so much about finally showed up.  
"Ah, PicoDevimon's back!" Takeru informed.  
"That's him?" Taichi questioned.  
"I imagined him, somewhat larger…" I said. The bat had shown up with a basket full of mushrooms.  
" _Not only is Takeru here, but so are Tokomon and a few others."_ PicoDevimon thought to himself.  
"Hey, Tokomon, how are you doing?" PicoDevimon tried to seem friendly to the Baby Digimon.  
"Hey! We want to ask you something!" Agumon got straight to the point.  
"Wh-Who are you people?"  
"I'm Taichi, this is Agumon."  
"I'm Ross, and this one here is Guilmon."  
"We're Takeru's real friends." Guilmon wanted to drive that point home.  
"What did Yamato tell you?" interrogated Agumon.  
"Yamato, is it?" PicoDevimon looked somewhat concerned. Something was indeed off. "He said he didn't want to be with Takeru anymore. See, when I heard that, I tried to persuade him by telling him he shouldn't say those things about his younger brother, but Yamato just wouldn't listen."  
"Is that the truth?"  
"I never lie!" I doubt it.

"Well, then, could you take us to where Yamato is?" Taichi asked.  
"We'd very much like to ask Yamato himself if what you said was true. Just to be sure." I added.  
"Very well. But it's a little far." PicoDevimon informed.  
"That doesn't matter." Taichi told him.  
"Okay then. Oh, by the way! Would you like to eat something before we set off?"  
"E-Eat?" The four of us said at the same time.  
"I'm kind of hungry." said Takeru.  
"I guess we should eat then." Taichi relented. PicoDevimon motioned to the basket.  
"Here are some delicious mushrooms. Help yourselves." Agumon went straight forward to grab one.  
"Wait! It tastes better cooked!" reminded the goggle wearing boy. We quickly got somethings together to make a small grill and started to cook the mushrooms.

"Wow, it smells so good!" drooled Takeru.  
"They're not done yet." Taichi was fanning the flames with a leaf.  
"Wait for me!" Agumon started to run away. "I'm going to the bathroom!" I quickly felt the pressure of needing to go as well.  
"Hold up, Agumon!" I yelled. "I need to use it too!" I went after him.  
"If you two don't hurry up, you won't get your share!" Taichi teased. After a few minutes, we finally found them in this place. Right below a sign signaling these were the bathroom, some familiar mushrooms were growing on the ground.  
"The same mushrooms are here too. Ah, bathroom, bathroom!" Agumon said. We both went in, and it was quite surprising to see how clean this place was. I was out in less than a minute after using the urinal and washing my hands.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"I guess this is about right. Here, have some." Taichi handed Takeru a mushroom that they had placed on a stick.  
"Okay."  
" _They don't know a thing."_ PicoDevimon thought. Takeru looked back at Tokomon.  
"What?"  
"Nothing." The Baby Digimon turned his nose up. Takeru was about to take a bite before Taichi stopped him.  
"Oh, wait! I forgot to add the seasoning!" PicoDevimon fell to the ground on his head in a comedic fashion.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I stood outside the restrooms waiting for Agumon to finish before we'd return to the others. I took a closer look at the mushrooms on the ground.  
"PicoDevimon was really insistent on us eating these… I wonder." I said aloud as I picked one up.  
"Don't eat them!" A voice, distinctly female, cried out from a place I couldn't figure out. "If you eat those mushrooms, you'll lose all of your memories!" What?! I threw the mushroom to the ground.  
"I knew it. That little rat is trying to poison us!" Normally, I would be running back to warn the others, but that voice… I slowly backed away towards the bushes with my back turned. "I knew PicoDevimon was nothing but trouble, and I should've expected him to do something like –THIS!" I jumped into the bushes and tackled whoever it was laying in the bushes. Imagine my surprise when I see that I'm currently on top of Sora with Piyomon right next to her.

"Sora!?" I questioned. She looked both shocked and nervous.  
"H-Hi, Ross. Could you get off me please?"  
"Oh, sorry." I got up off of her. "What are you doing hiding in the bushes? And you're serious about the mushrooms, right?" She looked away from me and nodded, answering the mushroom question. "Well, come on we got to hurry!" I started to run but noticed Sora wasn't following. "Well, aren't you coming?" She just looked down.  
"Ross…"  
"Sora, I don't-" It all clicked for me at once. "I see… I think I got it. You just want to be alone, don't you?" She looked surprised that I figured it out.  
"Sora just wants some time to herself." Piyomon explained.  
"Very well. I understand. My dad always did say 'Let a woman be alone when she wants to, unless you want her anger be directed at you.'" Sora flashed a small smile.  
"Your Dad sure says a lot of sayings."  
"What do you expect? We're from the South. Okay, I'll let you be, but just stick close to us just in case we need some help."  
"Alright. You won't tell Taichi and the others about me?"  
"I'm promise." We nodded to each other and I ran out of the bushes to see Agumon starting to leave the bathroom.

"Agumon! Hurry! The others are in trouble!"  
"What? How?"  
"Those mushrooms! They cause permanent amnesia; PicoDevimon is trying to poison us!" Agumon's eyes widened.  
"Ah! Let's go!" We both took off in a dead sprint. "Hey! How did you know about the mushrooms?"  
"I remember Palmon saying something about them during our first day here." I lied.  
"Okay!" Good, he doesn't really remember. Palmon did mention something about bad mushrooms during our first night in this world, but nothing about them causing amnesia. We soon got to where we left the others and saw that Takeru was about to start biting down on one of those mushrooms.

"DON'T EAT THEM!" Agumon and I screamed.  
"Don't eat those mushrooms!" Agumon cried.  
"Don't worry, guys, I left some for you!" Taichi said. We ran up and Agumon pulled out the mushroom that Takeru had in his mouth while I pulled the one Taichi had in his hands away. "What's up with you guys?"  
"The rat tried to poison us!" I roared. The others looked shocked and PicoDevimon looked terrified. Yep, he'd been found out.  
"What? I would never try to do that!" The bat tried to save face.  
"Oh, really?" Guilmon seemed to figure it out. He pulled the mushroom out of my hand. "Then you won't have a problem eating them!" He threw the mushroom at PicoDevimon and the Digimon got hit by it and tried hard to keep his mouth closed.  
"Of course, he won't! If you eat these things, they'll erase all of your memories!" Agumon explained.  
"No way!" Taichi replied.  
"Is that true, PicoDevimon?" inquired Takeru. The kid was angry.  
"W-Well…"  
"You lied about Yamato too, right?!" Tokomon accused. He tried to fly away but Agumon grabbed him.

"You lied about everything, right?!" Agumon questioned. The jig was up. He confessed.  
"Yes!" Takeru had tears in his eyes, but it looked more like a mix of sadness and anger.  
"That's mean! That's really mean!" He turned to Tokomon. "I'm sorry, Tokomon. I treated you so horribly."  
"I know. Don't worry about it."  
"Tokomon…" The little guy just jumped into his arms.  
"Takeru!"  
"Guess the misunderstanding is all cleared up now. Here, these are yours." Taichi handed Takeru back his Crest and Digivice.  
"Thanks!" We all looked down to see that his Crest was beginning to glow gold.  
"N-Not good… You bastard!" PicoDevimon shouted before he bit down on Agumon's arms and forced him to let go. "I'll get in trouble if you have that! Hand it over!" So, PicoDevimon wasn't just a simple troublemaker, he's was actually taking orders to cause problems for Takeru… not good. Tokomon leapt into action forcing PicoDevimon to back off.  
"I'll protect Takeru!" Takeru held out his Digivice as it began to glow.  
"Tokomon!"

"Tokomon, evolve! PATAMON!" That bat-hamster finally returned and flew straight towards the dark bat. Of course, PicoDevimon smacked him with his talons and sent him into the spinning cups ride.  
"Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" Both attacks hit him dead on but he responded back.  
"Pico Darts!" He put his wings to his chest before opening them to reveal syringes flying right toward us. Both Digimon dogged the attacks but a helpless flower got hit by one and was suddenly frozen before it shattered. That's really not good. "Pico Darts!" Patamon ducked back into the cup to avoid the attack before PicoDevimon came right in for him.  
"Patamon!" Takeru cried out. PicoDevimon had Patamon by his wings and was pulling him higher into the sky.  
"Let's have fun, Patamon-chan!" He dropped him and Patamon barely landed on the roller coaster before getting body slammed further down the track before he was dragged along it. "Isn't this fun? Doesn't it feel exciting? Up we go, it makes your eyes spin!" He was then slammed into the Ferris wheel.  
"Patamon, don't lose!" Takeru called out as we ran towards them. Patamon got his second wind and flew back at him. "Keep it up, Patamon!" Patamon flew straight at PicoDevimon and head-butted him.  
"Air Shot!" His signature attack crashed into the deceitful Digimon and cause him to crash into the roller coaster. He started to slide down it but Patamon was waiting for him. "Air Shot! Air Shot!" The attacks slid him back up before he was sent flying into the lake.

"All right!" We cheered.  
"Patamon!" Takeru ran up to him. "Thank you! I'm really sorry for everything that's happened."  
"I told you, it's okay! Besides, I was able to evolve again because of you, Takeru! Let's be friends again, okay?"  
"Okay. I need to apologize to Onii-chan later too."  
"Yeah!" Patamon hopped back into Takeru's arms.  
"Well, all's well that ends well with those two, huh, guys?" I told the rest of us from behind a bush.  
"Yeah, let's leave them alone for a while." Taichi suggested.  
"Uh, huh." Agumon nodded.  
"Anyway, that was a nice save you made, Agumon, Ross! Good thing you figured out what those mushrooms really were!"  
"By the way, how did you know?" Guilmon asked.  
"Eh, just remembered something Palmon once said." I lied once again. Oh, Sora, whatever problems you got right now, I hope you figure them out soon. We're gonna need you in the end.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

For PicoDevimon, the day was about to get worse for him. He finally washed up ashore out of the lake.  
"I was so close! Damn those two boys! Next time I see them, I'm giving them the injection! Eh!" His face turned to one of fear as the sky darkened and became red and a bunch of bats began floating nearby to reveal a cloaked silhouette. He placed himself face first into the ground. "I-I'm very sorry! The Crest of Hope has regained its light!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We decided to head out of the area tomorrow to resume our search for the others. The sun was beginning to set so we were gonna spend the night at the park before leaving. We watched the sun going down before Taichi reminded us of what we needed to do.  
"I'm not sure how they're doing it, but the distortions from this world are affecting the real world. That's why we need to fix them here before we go back home. In order to do that, everyone needs to combine their strengths. That includes you, Takeru."  
"I'll do my best!"  
"We know you will, kiddo." I said.  
"That's the spirit we're looking for." Taichi added. "Now, first thing tomorrow, we'll go look for the others!"  
"Yeah." We all nodded. Still, we had a lot of problems ahead of us. We need to find the others, especially Yamato, for Takeru's peace of mind. Sora wants to keep her distance for reasons that I don't know. And most importantly, PicoDevimon and his mysterious boss. He clearly was taking orders from someone so it looked like we have a new enemy ahead of us.

But whatever awaits, we'll take it head on, the fate of both worlds is clearly at stake…

* * *

And that was Chapter 23.

Okay, so I got some information. No deadline for the next one because on Monday, me and the folks are vacationing in Corpus Christi (Even though it's Ross' birthplace, I've actually never been there). So, I'm gonna try to sneak in the next chapter on Sunday and after that, I'm not gonna have much time to work until I get back home.

Anyways, take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	25. Oh Friend! WereGarurumon!

Greetings from Corpus Christi! Yeah, missed the window so I had to upload on the road.

Shout out to **MadDogLucario96** for another review. I decided to take your advice we discussed in the PM. And as I said before, PicoDevimon is like Etemon to me in terms of villains you hate to love.

Anyways, on the next chapter...

* * *

 **Chapter 24: Oh Friend! WereGarurumon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+82. Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida__

Deep down, I felt bad that I left Takeru back at the amusement park but honestly, he really needed a break and all me and Gabumon were doing was just seeing what was on the other side of the lake. We landed on a small beach below some fairly large cliffs, though there was a pathway that led up to the top.  
"Where are we?" I asked. "Did the wind blow us off course?"  
"Huh? Look over there!" Gabumon pointed up the cliff to see that a Monzaemon, a Cockatrimon, and a Yukidarumon were walking along the path. It was doubtful they were the same Digimon we've met before as I don't think two of them never left File Island and Cockatrimon was surely destroyed when his ship exploded.  
"What are they doing?" I questioned.  
"Let's follow them and see!"

We followed close behind. They noticed us but then just went back on their way. Yep, they weren't the same Digimon. After a half a kilometer, they soon walked into a large round building that was on the path.  
"What's that?" I asked though I'm sure Gabumon didn't have an answer. As we got close to the front door, we could hear voices inside.  
"The usual! Italian ice!" "Me too!" "One bowl of pudding, please."  
"Sure, your orders are all set." So this was a restaurant huh? "Thank you for your continued patronage! Hey, you! Look for more customers!" The door opened up to reveal a small yellow creature with a sort of Native American headdress looking thing on his head and long yellow vines for arms. In his arms, he threw out a very familiar Digimon that landed at our feet.  
"Gomamon?" I questioned.  
"Gomamon!" shouted Gabumon.  
"Gabumon?" He was surprised to see us. "Yamato!"  
"Then, does that mean Jou is in here?" I inquired. Gomamon nodded.  
"Yeah, he's out back in the kitchen."

We walked around the building and sure enough Jou was in the kitchen.  
"Yamato!" He exclaimed.  
"Jou! So this is where you were!"  
"Um, yeah." He started to rub the back of his head like he was embarrassed about something.  
"Everyone else disappeared after what happened. I mean, when you left it was just me, Takeru and Mimi, but she went her own way the day after you. Takeru and I are the only ones left."  
"Huh… Well, about that… Remember how we all divided up the work and I went looking for other people? Back then…"

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+77. Late Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido__

We were wandering through the desert when we got stopped by this bat Digimon named PicoDevimon. Now the second part of his name kinda rubbed me the wrong way but he didn't seem malicious or anything, far from it. He was actually trying to be helpful.  
"You're a human, aren't you?" He questioned me. "I saw a lot of beings that looked like you not far from here." My eyes widened.  
"Eh! So there _are_ other humans besides us!"  
"If you don't hurry, they'll disappear from our sights. Let's go. I'll take you there."  
"Th-Thank you… But…"  
"Hurry, hurry! Let's go!"  
"O-Okay!" We followed him but somewhere along the way, we lost sight of him… Even when we tried to go back, we got so lost that we couldn't find any familiar landmarks. Just when our stomachs were grumbling, we found this restaurant.

"I'm stuffed!" I said as we had finished eating.  
"Me too!" Gomamon added.  
"Thanks for your patronage." The waiter and cashier we'd soon known as Vegimon gave his usual speech.  
"Will this be enough?" I handed him almost fifty-thousand yen.  
"Sir, don't joke around." What? What did he mean I soon found out as a Numemon hopped up onto the counter.  
"Here's the bill." He placed a ten-dollar bill on the counter.  
"Dollar bills?" I muttered.  
"Of course!" Vegimon yelled.  
"You… don't accept Japanese yen?"  
"Huh? What's that?" I think I snapped mentally at that point. I was so screwed. "D… Don't tell me… Are you trying to leave without paying?!"

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+82. Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida__

"So now they're making you work to pay off your bills." I concluded. He nodded.  
"I didn't think it would turn out like this…" Suddenly, the door flew open and Vegimon hopped into the kitchen.  
"You're late! The customers are waiting! Hurry up and serve the food!"  
"Y-Yes, sir!" Jou poured a bowl of soup and Vegimon picked it up before looking at me and Gabumon.  
"Who are you?"  
"I'm his friend." I explained.  
"What are you doing back there then? You've got some business to take care of?" He pulled out a spoon and tasted the soup. "This is nasty!" He threw the bowl into the cabinets. "How can I feed this to the customers?! Make a new one!"  
"No way…!" Jou was completely disappointed.  
"I'm adding more to your expenses while I'm at it!"  
"How long do you have to work to pay it off?" I asked.  
"Well… At first, it was supposed to be for three days, but every time I screw up on something, it gets extended… Now it's about two weeks!"  
"It's not my fault!" Vegimon argued. "I'm just taking back the losses I've made on this guy!"

The door opened again and in walked a large Digimon who was nothing more than an egg with an opening in the front where his eyes were and reptilian legs coming from the bottom of the egg.  
"What's this, what's this? What's all the fuss about?"  
"Digitamamon-sama!" Vegimon stood at attention; I guess this guy owns the restaurant, might as well check.  
"Are you the owner of this place?" I questioned. "This guy is my friend. Can't you let him go?"  
"What are you saying? Quite your jokes!" Guess that was a no from him. "It'll be a different story if you worked with him to pay off his debts, though."  
"Well…" I agree, that would make it faster, but I can't leave Takeru behind. Maybe I should pick him up and then we both come back, that way, Takeru isn't left on his own and we can help Jou.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"If you can't do that, hurry up and leave. You're slowing down my business." Digitamamon said as he walked out of the kitchen.  
"Hey, I didn't even say…" Yamato tried to speak up as the egg Digimon went up the stairs to his office.  
"I probably won't leave this place for the rest of my life." moaned Jou.  
"Don't get depressed!"  
"But still…!"  
"Takeru is waiting for me. I'll bring him with me here, so wait for us until then."  
"Then…"  
"When I come back, I'll help you with your work. Okay?"  
"Yamato! I'm in your debt!" Jou cried.

Back at the top of the building where his office was, Digitamamon opened the door to find an unexpected guest.  
"Who's there? Oh? You're… PicoDevimon! What is it?" The bat just looked over to the table where a large stack of money was. "Th-This is… I see, Well, what do you want me to do?"  
"Oh, it's a very simple matter." Back at the beach, Yamato and Gabumon were almost back at the swan boat before they were stopped by some yelling.  
"Wait!" They turned around to see Digitamamon looking not too happy with them. "Where do you think you're going?"  
"Where?" Yamato questioned.  
"I want you to stay here and work with them!"  
"Why bring this up all of a sudden?"  
"Anyways, that's how things worked out!" The egg was getting kinda of boiled, in terms of his temper.  
"I don't mind working here, but I need to leave for a bit right now. I'll be sure to come back later." The blonde haired boy explained.

"Should I take that to mean you don't care about what happens to your friend in the meantime?" The Perfect-Level Digimon said in a sinister tone.  
"What do you mean?" Yamato was taken aback.  
"Figure it out. While you're gone, I'll be free to do whatever I want to him."  
"What?!"  
"Yamato… What should we do?" Gabumon asked. The human sighed.  
"Gabumon, I want you to take the boat and go get Takeru for me, okay?" It seemed he figured out a solution, unfortunately, Digitamamon wasn't one for work arounds.  
"Oh, no! He stays too… or, you know…" The egg threatened. Yamato's eyes widened. He had been backed into a corner. He merely growled at the Digimon before he reluctantly began to walk back to the restaurant.  
" _I'm sorry, Takeru."_

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

I began to get to work on the rice while Jou was working on washing the dishes. He seemed surprised that I came back so soon.  
"Yamato? Didn't you say you were going back for Takeru?" My mood darkened as I didn't answer him. "Go. Don't worry about me. Okay? Go on! You can step by again when I'm almost finished."  
" _Figure it out. While you're gone, I'll be free to do whatever I want to him."_ I thought back to Digitamamon's threat. What was I supposed to do? Tell Jou the truth? That if I don't stay, Digitamamon will murder him and make it look like an accident. Sure he'll understand immediately, but he'd be so scared to do anything that in the long run wouldn't help either of us.  
"No, that's okay." I lied to him.  
"Yamato… What happened to you?"  
"It's okay."  
"You're worried about Takeru, aren't you? Go back to him."  
"I said, it's okay!" I snapped.  
"Did I say something wrong?" I came to a sudden realization when he said that. He said all of that in consideration of me… But I…

"I'm sorry." I apologized. I hated to leave Takeru behind without telling him why I'm now stuck here, but he should be fine for the next few days at that amusement park. I turned my thoughts back to Jou. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. Don't worry about it."  
"Yamato…"  
"Leave the cooking to me. If we work together, we'll get out of here quicker. So let's do our best together."  
"You think so? I'm sorry, I'll never forget this favor."  
"Everything will straighten out! Let's work hard, Jou." Gomamon encouraged.  
"We're with you!" Gabumon assured.  
"Yeah…" mumbled Jou. "Yeah, your right!" He regained confidence. I turned back to the food but my mood was still sour. Hang in there, Takeru. I'll be back as soon as possible.

 _Digitamamon's Restaurant, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+94. Evening._

Two weeks. Almost two damn weeks I've been stuck in this place! At first, we were doing fine but then Jou just kept making a mistake here and a mistake there that just started pilling on the days. I've lost track of how many more we have to work off. Oh, Takeru… I can't even begin to imagine what's going on with him. He's probably thinking I've just abandoned him or something.

"Yamato…" My blood has slowly been beginning to boil every time Jou opens his mouth for the past few days. "I'm sorry!" You're sorry? You're not the one who's left his little brother behind and has no way of letting him know what's happened to you. "I won't make any more mistakes from now on. I promise." I'll believe that when I see it. "Yamato…"  
" _I can't make any more mistakes…. If I do, I'll cause even more trouble for Yamato… I must never make any more mistakes…!"_ Jou thought to himself. I then heard more plates crash and I turned around see the smashed plates on the floor. Oh, gods above…  
"Yamato… I'm sorry…" Jou looks like he's just about have it too.  
"It's okay." I told him. "Don't worry about it." Ugh… How much longer do I have to stay here? I promised Takeru I'd come for him!

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Outside the restaurant, PicoDevimon was keeping tabs on the situation. Okay, so things backfired for him when dealing with the youngest of the Chosen Children. How they figured out about the mushrooms, he couldn't figure it out. However, with this predicament, it was going pretty much according to plan.  
" _Things are looking good."_ The bat Digimon thought to himself. _"Now all it needs is the finishing touch."  
_ "Hey, have you finished peeling the potatoes yet?" He heard Yamato ask the bluenette.  
"I'll get them, after I wash these."  
"Hurry up!"  
"O-Okay." PicoDevimon noticed that the potatoes were on a wooden board being held up by four legs of bricks stacked on each other. He slowly removed a brick and forced the board to begin to wobble.  
" _Now to watch, it's the perfect setup."_ He thought. Unbeknownst to him however, the person who had ruined his poisoning plans at the park had snuck behind and placed the brick back in its place. Sora then quietly snuck back into hiding.  
"Sora?" Piyomon questioned.  
"It's okay." She motioned the pink bird to keep quiet. PicoDevimon perched himself on a branch out of sight to watch the mess.  
"Now then…" He said to himself. He was suddenly surprised when nothing happened as Jou cared the potatoes back in with no problem. "Wh-Why?! Damn it! Never mind, just watch! You're not getting off that easy!"

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

After the restaurant closed up for the night, I went back down to the beach where the swan boat still lied. I admit, the idea to sneak back across the lake and pick up Takeru during the night had crossed my mind, but I was worried that Digitamamon was just staying up and waiting for me to try that. I couldn't let Jou get hurt because of me. I know he's been causing mistakes but he doesn't mean it. Maybe I should've told him what Digitamamon said at the start. Maybe he'd cause fewer mistakes, or more, who knows. I pulled out my harmonica and began to play it.

"That's a beautiful melody." A voice said from behind. I turned around to see that my audience was a small bat Digimon.  
"Who are you?" I questioned.  
"Oh, I'm just a bat Digimon passing by. But it appears you're burdened with troubles heavier than mine."  
"How…?"  
"The melody from your instrument doesn't lie." I guess you could guess from it. "You're an honest and faithful person. You're sacrificing yourself for your friend."  
"So you know."  
"Yes. But your friend, on the other hand, doesn't feel the same."  
"Jou? What about him?"  
"I've heard he's making mistakes on purpose."  
"What?!"  
"It's because he's afraid of being left behind on his own."  
"Jou would… He would never do that!" The bat sighed.  
"You're a good guy. Goodbye." He took off flying away.  
"Jou is doing it… On purpose?" Wait, why am I even remotely believing this rumor? I thought I was doing all this to keep him from being slaughtered by a bad egg. What would Jou gain being stuck here as practically a slave? I mean, we'd probably go our separate once I get Takeru back and we'd leave this place… wait? Could he really?

Come morning, we had quite the busy crowd, but that didn't matter. I had to get out of here.  
"Please!" I begged to Digitamamon. "I'll make sure to come back! Just let me go pick up my brother! Come on!"  
"No. Absolutely not."  
"Why not?! I promise to come back work again!" He just turned away from me. I then heard Jou make a surprised sound and then the sound of that stack of plates smash on the floor. Jou… that's it… that bat was right… he really is doing this on purpose.  
"Both of you are working one more week!"  
"One more week?! I don't have that sort of time!"  
"What do I care? You'll be working with him to reimburse everything!" I just fell to my knee.  
"Damn it…!" I muttered. "Why…?" Jou seemed to figure out what I meant.  
"No, that's not it! Someone bumped into my legs and knocked me over!" Jou tried to feign innocence. "It wasn't me! I'm telling the truth, believe me!"  
"Don't make excuses!" I yelled.  
"Yamato!" I had to get out of here. I walked out of the kitchen and as far from Jou as I would be allowed. "It's the truth…"

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+95. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

Okay, so our search for the others got a bit sidetracked. The morning we left the amusement park we hit a snag that we thought we could easily solve. Without a boat or a large Digimon to be used as a boat like Ikkakumon to get us across the lake; we couldn't take the direct route. We could fly with MetalGreymon or MegaloGrowmon but we decided against it as we weren't in any rush and we may need to save their energy. So we thought that if Yamato was heading towards the other side of it, we'd just walk around the lake. As it turned out, the lake was either beginning or was a continuation of a titanic river. Ross said we may have found the Digital World's answer to the Rhine which I joked by saying we should find the Digital World's answer to Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. Ross laughed because that was military history joke he'd come up with while the rest of our group was completely lost on it.

We spent the entire day walking alongside the mighty river with absolutely no sign of a crossing or an area we could easily ford. Come the next morning after camping in the woods, we came to the utter shock that we found a town full of Digimon and more importantly, a bridge across the river. The bridge wasn't anything too spectacular but we couldn't care less, we could just head back to the lake on the other side now. After asking around the town if they had seen any other humans and them apologizing to us that they hadn't, we crossed the bridge and headed back to the lake. It was close to nightfall before we got within a few kilometers of the lake again.

This morning, we finally reached the lake, and suddenly as we got closer, a familiar beeping sound rang out.  
"Something's beeping." Takeru noticed. I checked my Digivice to see that two red dots were straight ahead.  
"Our friends must be nearby!" I said.  
"That's right!" Agumon remembered. "When we met you, Takeru, it started beeping too."  
"Shoot, I'm sorry. We should've flown if we knew they were right there." Ross apologized because he was the one who said we didn't need to fly.  
"Not your fault, Ross." assured Guilmon.  
"Will we be able to meet my brother?" The little kid asked.  
"Maybe." I told him, the odds were in that favor, but for all we know, it could be Sora and Mimi, or something like that.

We walked towards the dots until we came across this round building. We walked up the stairs and opened the door to see that it was a restaurant and that two of the employees were very familiar Digimon.  
"Gomamon!" Ross said.  
"Gabumon!" excitedly cheered Takeru.  
"It's Taichi and Ross!" Gomamon was surprised.  
"And Takeru!" Gabumon was surprised too but in a more pleasant sense. Takeru ran up to the wolf pelt wearing Digimon.  
"Gabumon! Where's my brother?"  
"Is Jou here too?" I asked.  
"Yeah, he's here! But…" Gomamon's mood darkened, and so did Gabumon's. Uh oh.  
"But…?" They led us to the kitchen and we found Jou in there.

"Taichi! Ross! You're alive! I was worried about you!" He exclaimed.  
"Sorry, a lot of stuff happened." I apologized.  
"Yeah, it's quite the story we've got." Ross added.  
"Hey, where's my brother? He's nearby, isn't he?" Takeru was a one-track mind at this point. Jou's mood also darkened when he was asked that question. His eyes looked out towards the back door and we looked at that direction. "He's outside, right?"  
"Jou. What's wrong?" I asked.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

I just laid down in the grass after I stormed out of the kitchen. Oh, what am I going to do?  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru was standing right above me before he fell on his knees with a large smile on his face. How? How is he here? And why the hell is he smiling and not pissed off at me or something?  
"Takeru!" I cried as he hugged me.  
"I finally get to see you again!"  
"How did you…?"  
"I came with Taichi-san and Ross-san!"  
"Taichi? Ross?" I turned and sure enough, they were standing there in the flesh not looking any worse for wear.  
"Yo." "Hey." They said.  
"You're alive!"  
"I'm not kicking the bucket before you!" bragged the goggle wearing boy.  
"And if he listens to me more often, he'll definitely live longer." Ross responded to that boast before Taichi shot him a look.  
"Oh, sorry. Hey, thanks for taking care of Takeru, you two."  
"Don't worry about it!" Taichi said.

"I'm sorry, Takeru. I couldn't keep my promise to come get you."  
"That's okay. We were able to see each other again." Oh, Takeru. You're way too forgiving, but I guess in this case, I was thankful.  
"Anyway, I'm glad you're safe."  
"Putting that aside…" Taichi spoke up. "It doesn't look like anyone's around, so let's get out of here!"  
"You want us to run?" Gabumon questioned.  
"Yeah! Let's hurry up and look for the others together!"  
"I don't want to." I told the group.  
"Onii-chan?"  
"I don't mind running away from here, but I won't go with Jou." That surprised him. "He'll only drag us down if he stays with us."  
"What?!" Ross was taken aback by that comment.  
"How can you say that? We're all friends!" Taichi argued.  
"What do you mean, friends?!" I yelled. "You keep dragging everyone around at your own convenience! Thanks to that, I'm all worn out! Just do whatever you want on your own!"  
"Wh-What?!" Now Taichi was the one taken aback.

"I'm going with Takeru and that's it!" I declared. "Leave us alone!"  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru tugged on my arm. "What's wrong? We're all friends here."  
"Shut up!" Takeru was shocked that I yelled at him. "You just have to stay quiet and follow me!" However, it seems like we may have stayed too long as Digitamamon showed up.  
"Everyone~" He said, and then he got angry. "You wouldn't be thinking of fleeing from here, are you?"  
"It'll give us trouble if you did that." We turned around to see on a tree branch was that same bat creature from last night.  
"Huh?" Jou was confused.  
"Th- That's…!" Takeru seemed to remember who this was.  
"PicoDevimon!" Patamon informed us.  
"What are you doing here, you short rat?" Ross questioned.  
"I'm not short!" PicoDevimon yelled.  
"PicoDevimon is an evil Digimon who tried to trick Takeru!" explained Agumon.  
"He tried to poison us with memory loosing mushrooms!" Guilmon added.  
"What!?" I was shocked. I thought that Takeru would be safe and it turns out, he nearly had been poisoned.

"Then, when you mentioned there were humans around…" Jou pieced things together. "It was all a lie!"  
"Damn it! I won't forgive you!" Taichi shouted.  
"Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" "Air Shot!" PicoDevimon dodged the three attacks.  
"Hey, watch it!" He flew off and Taichi, Ross, their two Digimon and Patamon all pursued the small bat.  
"Wait!" "Stop him!"  
"You've got guts, trying to shirk your payments and escape from me." Digitamamon spoke up.  
"What are you talking about?" I questioned. "Our debts should have already been more that paid for!"  
"That's true. You were very good workers." He started to get bigger. "Let me give you back your change."  
"What?" I quickly jumped out of the way as the exposed part of his shell closed and he tried to ram.  
"The next one won't miss."

"Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" Garurumon jumped in and tried to defend me. "Fox Fire!" The attack merely just bounced off the shell.  
"Attacks won't work against Digitamamon once he's sealed himself within his shell!" Gomamon informed.  
"That's how things work." The egg Digimon taunted. He charged straight forward and slammed Garurumon hard.  
"Garurumon!" I cried out.  
"Help me!" I turned around to see Vegimon hanging from the roof with one vine and he had Takeru hanging upside down with the other vine!  
"Takeru!"  
"If you keep putting up a struggle, I can't guarantee the boy will live." Digitamamon threatened. "That includes your Digimon too!" Garurumon was slowly getting back up before he was struck again, this time into a cliff wall.  
"Garurumon!" I shouted once again.  
"Onii-chan! Help me!" yelled Takeru. What do I do? If I do nothing, we can't win, and if I fight, I risk getting both Takeru and Garurumon killed!

"Damn it, that's unfair!" Jou responded to the dirty tricks. "I won't forgive this!"  
"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!" Ikkakumon tried to impale Vegimon with his horn but the Digimon dodged the attack.  
"Whoa! What are you doing? If you do that, I'm not responsible for what happens to this little guy!" He started waving Takeru around much to his fright.  
"Takeru!"  
"You won't get away with this!" To my surprise, Jou used Ikkakumon as a distraction so he could sneak onto the roof and jump down on Vegimon from above. The three of them crashed to the ground. Thankfully, Takeru fell to the grass while Vegimon and Jou smashed through the potatoes. However, all we did was giving Vegimon a new hostage as his vines were slowly strangling Jou.  
"J-Jou-san?"  
"Why?" I questioned.  
"Up until now…" He choked out. "I've put up with everything because you said we should do our best together, Yamato… So this time, I'll… Ikkakumon! Save everyone!" Ikkakumon tried to attack Digitamamon but the Digimon was fast and avoided it.  
"I'll squeeze even harder if you do that!" Vegimon reminded.  
"Jou!" I yelled.  
"Don't mind me, hurry up and defeat Digitamamon! Forget about me!" I felt so terrible.  
"I… I said those horrible things, but…" Jou was still risking his life even after everything. I blamed him for doing things that I could now see he did mean or did. Jou… "JOU!"

I won't abandon my friends!

I looked down to see that my Crest was glowing… I… I got it to work?  
"I could wipe the floor with you two if I seriously wanted to." Digitamamon boasted to our Digimon. "You might not believe me, but it's true. Nightmare Syndrome!" The whole inside of his shell shot out and engulfed the both of them in a small ball before it exploded and sent them flying.  
"He's too strong!" worried Takeru. "It's no use! We can't win!"  
"No, that's not true!" I shouted. "It _will_ work out somehow!" I won't forget it anymore! I can't forget it! My friends… "The feeling of believing in my friends! Friendship!" My Digivice turned blue and the buttons became silver as it shot a light towards my Crest and reflected back to Garurumon.

"Garurumon, super-evolve! WEREGARURUMON!" WereGarurumon was a whole another beast. He still looked like Garurumon but he had become bipedal and was wearing ripped denim jeans, he had a shoulder guard on his left shoulder as well as brass knuckles on his left hand.  
"That's WereGarurumon!" I announced to Digitamamon.  
"WereGarurumon?" He questioned. "Nightmare Syndrome!"  
"Kaiser Nail!" WereGarurumon yelled as he stopped the attack dead in its tracks.  
"Don't dare take a single step back! WereGarurumon!" I ordered. He groaned in his struggle before he succeeded in throwing back the attack to Digitamamon and sent him flying far away.  
"Huh? Di-Digitamamon-sama?" Vegimon was shocked and so was PicoDevimon who rejoined the fray along with the others.  
"N-No way! He beat Digitamamon!" The bat panicked and fled.  
"He's getting away!" Taichi observed.

"Vegimon! Release Jou now!" I ordered.  
"Or do you want to fight me too?" threatened WereGarurumon.  
"N-No, thank you!" Vegimon knew fighting would be suicide and put down Jou before running off.  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru ran up to me and hugged me. "Jou-san saved me!" Both Jou and I just looked at each other before Ross and Taichi walked up to him.  
"Real nice going there." Ross patted him on the back.  
"That was unusually heroic of you, Jou." Taichi added.  
"Thanks, but you didn't have to add 'unusually' to that." The eldest member of our group got embarrassed.  
"Buy you really were cool, Jou!" Gomamon chimed in.  
"Really, really!" Tsunomon, who WereGarurumon devolved back into, cheered. Jou could only laugh.

"Jou…" I spoke up. It was time to come clean. "Thank you… For saving Takeru…"  
"That's okay. After all, you're always saving me."  
"Also…! I'm sorry…" That was really hard for me to say…  
"Yamato…" He laughed once again before we all started to join it. It was a mess these last few weeks but now, we can move past that.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

One person who could not move past that was PicoDevimon. He was now having to explain his latest failure to his mysterious master.  
"A-And then… The light from the Crest of Friendship caused WereGarurumon to evolve!" The bat finished his story.  
"What?" The silhouetted being questioned.  
"U-Um…" He didn't get much more time to explain as a swarm of bats began attacking the small Digimon. "Sp-Spare me!"  
"Learn your place."  
"D-Damn it! It's entirely their fault! Just you wait, children!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After we finally got away from that restaurant, we all were moving forward along the path. Taichi and I were filling in Jou and Yamato about what was going on.  
"So what you're saying is… If we don't do something about this world, the effects will move over to our world." Yamato concluded.  
"Right. Digimon are starting to cross worlds and are beginning to cause problems that if left unchecked will be catastrophic." I informed. We were interrupted when our Digivices began to beep.  
"What's that?"  
"Apparently if one of our friends is nearby, this starts beeping." explained Taichi.  
"Then someone must be close by." Jou guessed.  
"Which way is it?" Takeru asked.  
"Mine's this way." Taichi pointed to the right fork of the path that followed the river.  
"Mine's over here." Yamato motioned towards the left fork leading deep into the mountains.  
"Then why don't we split into two groups and look for them?"  
"Okay. I'll go with Takeru."  
"Then, Ross, Jou, you come with me."  
"But what'll happen if we don't see each other afterwards?" Jou worried.  
"How's about we meet at the bottom of that mountain, then?" I suggested.  
"Okay. Let's do that." agreed Yamato.

"Hey, will we really see each other again?" Takeru questioned.  
"We will! Because we're friends!" Yamato assured him.  
"Yeah! We'll definitely meet again!" Taichi reminded.  
"There's nothing that's gonna keep us apart for long!" I said.  
"You're right. After all, we're friends!" Jou concluded.

We parted for now, but we were sure that we would meet again further down the road…

* * *

And that was Chapter 24.

Nothing more to say except no deadline for the next one but when I get back, the deadline will come back in play.

Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	26. Breakthrough! AtlurKabuterimon!

I'm back! Sorry for some delays, I just got really into some old games.

Shoutout to **Marsmiko** for the fav/follow. Thank you very much.

Anyways, on to the next chapter, featuring a Digimon that as **MadDogLucario96** put it, reminds me a lot of Roger from American Dad. "But I've got 3,500 candles up there. How the hell am I supposed to unload them? Make wax statues of Viggo Mortensen? Ooh, first thought, best thought."

* * *

 **Chapter 25: Breakthrough! AtlurKabuterimon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+96. Early Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi__

Dawn had broken out less than an hour ago up here in the mountains but that didn't stop me from getting up at the crack of it. For the past few weeks since I left the others, I kept up the search for Gennai. Surly he must have some information about anything: The Digital World, Taichi-san and Ross-san's location, the secrets of the Crests, ways to get back home. Of course, we hadn't had much luck what with not finding any trace of Gennai but I wasn't one to give up.

"Koushiro-han! Let's take a little break! I'm exhausted!" Tentomon complained.  
"I want to meet Gennai-san as soon as possible!" I informed him.  
"But even so, it's already been two months!"  
"It doesn't matter how long it takes!" Tentomon merely sighed. "I'm going ahead."  
"Koushiro-han! Wait for me!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Further ahead of Koushiro's path in the mountains was the tiny troublemaking bat PicoDevimon. The bat was not in a good mood, as he was under quite a large amount of pressure due to his orders and the success of them. If he succeeded, the threat that the Chosen Children posed to his master would either be greatly weakened or eliminated altogether. But if he failed like he had back at the amusement park with his lies and amnesia mushrooms, or at Digitamamon's restaurant with his tricks and bribery, then his life might as well be forfeit.

"Vamdemon-sama… He'll punish me!" He worried as he was placing down a wooden sign. "Vamdemon-sama will punish me!" He remembered back to the conversation he had before dawn with the mysterious Vamdemon.  
"PicoDevimon!"  
"Y-Yes, sir!"  
"When will you be stealing the Crests from the Chosen Children?"  
"V-Very soon, sir!"  
"Can I trust you?"  
"Do these look like the eyes of a liar?" PicoDevimon didn't actually fully think that sentence through as that was mostly what he did do. "Vamdemon-sama?"  
"Very well." The bat gave out a sigh of relief. "But if you don't manage to steal the Crests, you had better prepare for the consequences." PicoDevimon returned back to the present and continued to place the sign.  
"If I don't steal it… This time, I'm dead! I'm dead! I'm… Ahh!" The sign broke on him and sent him tumbling to the ground. He looked ahead to see the small red-headed Chosen Child along with the Tentomon approaching him on the path. "It's a Chosen Child!" He declared as he flew into cover.

"If I meet Gennai-san…" PicoDevimon heard the boy say. Wait, who is Gennai-san? Eh, doesn't matter to him now, the stealing of the Crest and saving his own skin was his top priority. "I'm sure he'll tell me the secret behind this Crest." The boy pulled out his Crest and PicoDevimon took a photo of it while he was in cover.  
"You always want to know everything about everything, Koushiro-han." Tentomon said. "That's what I like about you."  
"Oh stop, you're embarrassing me."  
"I don't mean anything weird from it."  
"I know. Even so, I wonder where Gennai-san is…"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

"Here's a signpost!" Tentomon ran up to the sign post that was along the path.  
"You're right." I walked up to it. "'Beware of large pieces of falling crap ahead.'" I read off.  
"What's that mean?"  
"No idea." Apparently, Tentomon came up with a thought and did not like the mental image he came up with. He quickly shook his head.  
"Koushiro-han, let's go this way!"  
"Okay." We walked for several meters before we came across another sign post.  
"Wh-What? There's one of here too!" We walked up to this one.  
"'Beware of a bottomless pit of crap ahead.'" I read this one aloud.  
"Again?" Tentomon had another image in his head that he shook out. "Koushiro-han, let's go that way!"  
"Sure." Boy, these signs sure were strange. Of course, I had an idea what Tentomon was thinking but I'm thinking that these signs are more of the work of some kinda of prankster. We turned around to find another sign! "'Beware of savage crap!'" I read. Tentomon shook his head once more. "This area is full of, pardon my language, crap." We looked to see even more signs.  
"It's a nasty place!" The ground all of a sudden began to rumble and sent the both of us down a black pit!

I felt as if I was falling but it was weird, I didn't feel like I was dropping that fast.  
"Tentomon, can you fly?"  
"I can't!" He opened up his wings. "Look! It's making me fall even faster!"  
"I wonder how far we'll be falling?"  
"How should I know?!" Tentomon seemed to be panicking more than me.  
"Until you reach Hell." A voice called out from the black abyss.  
"Hell?" I questioned. I'm not really that religious of a person but that sounds bad for the both of us. Now was my turn to be panicking as the both of us tried to float back upward. "Y-You must be kidding me!"  
"Really!" shouted Tentomon. I grabbed Tentomon's shoulder but that sent us further down. "I don't want to go to Hell!"  
"Grab onto these." The voice said. We soon found ourselves floating upward with myself on a large inflatable pool duck and Tentomon in a ship's lifesaver. "All who possess a desire will fall into Hell."  
"I don't think either of us possesses any sort of desire whatsoever." I told the voice.  
"No, you do!" The voice got angry before he paused.

"You have the desire of wanting to know everything." The voice answered. Huh? What does he mean by that?  
"Is it wrong to want to know everything?"  
"Look. It's because you get offended like that and ask questions that the weight of your curiosity grows, dragging you down to Hell."  
"No way!" He can't be right, could he?  
"See, you wondered 'Why?' again."  
"Because…"  
"Your inquisitive heart keeps swelling and swelling!" The duck inflated underneath me before it exploded and sent me falling again.  
"Koushiro-han!" Tentomon called out. I grabbed on to him and he tried to swim back up.  
"Do you want to go to Hell?" The voice asked.  
"No, I don't!" I said.  
"Me neither!" Tentomon added.

"Then throw away your inquisitive heart!" The voice ordered.  
"I like you with your inquisitive heart, Koushiro-han." Tentomon told me.  
"But at this rate, the two of us will fall into Hell!" What do I do? Keep it and doom the both of us or throw away what probably makes me, me. The lifesaver popped and dropped the both of us. That settles it. I have no choice. "How do I throw it away?!"  
"Pray for it!" The voice told me.  
"I don't want to know!" Everything started to get dimmer and harder to even think anything. "I don't want to… know…"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Tentomon and Koushiro soon found themselves in a star field with many planetary objects around them as they were still floating.  
"Where are we?" Tentomon asked. A pink crescent moon appeared and the voice called out from it.  
"In the Sacred Mysterious Universe."  
"Who are you?" A silhouette began to appear. Koushiro, who was looking very absentminded, put his hands together and bowed to the creature. It was a peach colored creature with a large head, two arms with three fingers, and six tentacles for his feet. In all, he was a perfect representation of some sort of alien from outer space.  
"I am Vademon, the ruler of the Sacred Mysterious Universe."  
"I think I've heard of you, your real nature is unknown to much of the Digital World. And your special attack, Akuma no Nage Kiss, is mortifying to enemies." Tentomon said.

"I appreciate the fact that you at least know who I am." The alien Digimon thanked. A grayish blob began floating up to him. "This is the inquisitive heart that you threw away. It mustn't dirty the sanctity of the Sacred Mysterious Universe." He pulled out some sort of ray guy that sucked the blob into it. "I will dispose of it." A book soon appeared and fell before the young human. "Learning about Cosmic Power will be more valuable to you."  
"A textbook on how to obtain Cosmic Power…" Koushiro spoke in a very monotone voice as he opened the book.  
"That's the way to go." Vademon vanished back into the moon as he left with quite a strange laugh.  
"The basics of Cosmic Power lie in your breathing."  
"Koushiro-han! Don't believe in that crazy stuff!" Tentomon told him.  
"The correct way to breathe is to release alpha rays from your right chest…"  
"Stop reading that!" Tentomon tried to pull the book away but Koushiro shoved him.  
"What are you doing?" Koushiro's Digivice began beeping yellow but he didn't seem to notice as he kept reading. "As a result your blood flow will increase and energy will flow throughout your body. Therefore, your breathing is…" Tentomon ignored him as he pulled out Koushiro's now turned on PowerBook and opened it… to reveal Taichi and Ross on the screen.

"Koushiro!" Taichi shouted.  
"Ta-Taichi-san! Ross-san! Where are you right now?"  
"At home! We're back in the real world!" Ross explained.  
"Koromon and Gigimon are with us." added Taichi.  
"I see." Koushiro said. "Then that must mean… You're not coming back here. But please contact me once in awhile." The screen and laptop went dead after that.  
"It looks like Taichi-han and Ross-han are having their share of troubles too." concluded Tentomon. Koushiro said nothing as he floated away and went back to reading. "Koushiro-han!"  
"With Cosmic Power, you will seek to gain tranquility in everything." Koushiro continued to read.

At the same time, Vademon was walking through a shop as this was his true nature. The guy was nothing more than a sleazy junk salesman… with access to his own private pocket dimension. He was holding in his hands the gray blob that was Koushiro's heart.  
"The inquisitive heart will be placed right next to the ignorant heart. If there are people who will throw away their hearts, then there are people who will buy it from them! I am the shopkeeper of the Universe of Hearts, Vademon!" He announced. He stopped when he heard a doorbell ring. "A customer has come to buy a heart! Coming!"

Back outside in the mountains, PicoDevimon was ringing a doorbell that was outside a hole to Vademon's shop.  
"Yes, yes! Welcome!" Vademon jumped out of the whole, scaring PicoDevimon with his sudden entrance.  
"U-Um…"  
"My store will do everything to suit your tastes amongst our wild variety of commodities…" He stopped when he saw a picture of Koushiro and Tentomon that PicoDevimon had pulled out.  
"Did this kid and his Digimon fall in this area?"  
"Oh, yes, they did!"  
"And?!"  
"I understand! Please wait here a moment!" Vademon jumped back into the hole before popping back out again and scaring the bat. "Thank you for waiting! Here is that boy's inquisitive heart!"  
"Not that!" While taking that would probably help, PicoDevimon promised that it would be the Crest that he'd steal, not the kid's heart.

"Sir, did you come here just to play around?" PicoDevimon answered by pulling out a second photo, this time a picture of the Crest.  
"I want this thing that that boy was holding."  
"We only sell hearts here. You won't find that for sale here." PicoDevimon somewhat panicked before he regained himself and thought of a way to get the alien's attention.  
"I have a great pile of crap waiting to be spent though." That got Vademon's attention. The alien was very strange as he had quite an unhealthy love for, well, in PicoDevimon's case, guano. "I don't mind bartering for it, you know." The bat teased. Vademon jumped right into the small Digimon's face, sending him flying.  
"All right, I'll take it! I'll get a hold of it and trade it for your fine pile of crap!" As he finished speaking, he jumped back into his hole to get the Crest.

Back in the pocket dimension, Koushiro was still out there as he was now just recounting the alphabet and positioning his body in the shape of the letters he was saying.  
"Koushiro-han!" interrupted Tentomon.  
"I'm training right now to get Cosmic Power, so quit bothering me!" He responded before going back to the letter movement. It was interrupted once more when Vademon showed back up.  
"I forgot to tell you something."  
"Vademon-sama."  
"To obtain Cosmic Power, you must first throw everything away."  
"Everything?"  
"Throw away everything you have." Koushiro nodded to the request.  
"Yes, sir." He first emptied some scraps of paper he had in his pockets before he removed his Crest. "I don't need this." Vademon laughed as soon as he saw it.  
"You can't do that!" Tentomon shouted as he chased after the Crest.  
"I'll be taking this." The alien taunted.  
"Give back the Crest!"  
"Be quite!" He pulled out his ray gun and blasted Tentomon square in the chest. Koushiro wasn't even remotely concerned with his loyal friend's predicament, proving how far he was now checked out. "Continue with your training!"  
"Yes, sir." Koushiro went back to the letter training as Vademon laughed once more.

PicoDevimon tapped his talon on the ground as he was still waiting for the strange looking salesman.  
"Where the heck is he?" The bat questioned. For the third time today, Vademon jumped from his hole and scared PicoDevimon once more.  
"Thank you for waiting!" He held out the Crest.  
"This is it!" Everything was coming up PicoDevimon now. "Now hand it over!"  
"No! This is a trade! Where's your big pile of fine crap?"  
"Wa-Wait just a minute! I'll have it right out. Ready, set, go!" He flew to the ground and began to start straining as he was trying to 'evacuate' the item he was trying to trade. "It's not coming out."  
"Give me a break! Out!" The pink alien used one of his leg tentacles to punt the ball shaped Digimon.

Back in Vademon's dimension, Koushiro was still doing his letter exercise. Tentomon could only watch heartbroken as the boy that he admired so greatly was not a shell of his former self.  
"Koushiro-han…" He choked out before he felt his strength leave him and reverted back to Mochimon. "Mochimon…" He choked out once more which at least drew the red-head's attention. "Mochimon…" He then reverted back to his lowest form, a green-colored blob that looked like it had a yellow pacifier in its mouth. "Bubbmon." He said his name.  
"Bubbmon…" Koushiro repeated.  
"Bubb! Bubb! Bubb!" He cried with tears in his eyes.  
"Be quite!" Koushiro angrily yelled. "Why must I keep telling you to stop getting in the way of my training?!"  
"Bubb! Bubb! Bubb! Bubb!" The tears flowed from the small Digimon and began floating towards Koushiro who began seeing memories in the tears.  
" _If I meet Gennai-san, I'm sure he'll tell me the secret behind this Crest!"  
"You always want to know everything about everything, Koushiro-han. That's what I like about you."_

When the bubbles began popping, it brought Koushiro back to reality and the right mindset once more.  
"Bubb! Bubb!"  
"Bubbmon!" Koushiro ran up and picked up the Baby-Level Digimon before hugging him. "Bubbmon!"  
"Bubb! Bubb! Bubb!"  
"I'm sorry for making you degenerate."  
"Bubb! Bubb!"  
"Stop fooling around!" They heard Vademon shout out.  
"Vademon-san, calm down!" Another voice said as they followed the voices to a steel door with a window in it.  
"Sir! You're being too persistent!"  
"Wa-Wait a minute!"  
"No, I won't!"  
"Leave right now!"  
"I can't!"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

We looked out the window in the door to see Vademon talking with a small bat-like Digimon.  
"Why not?!" Vademon asked the bat about why he couldn't leave.  
"If I don't take that Crest back with me… Who knows what Vamdemon-sama will do to me?!" I quickly checked and remember that I had thrown away my Crest in my daze. And who is the Vamdemon-sama that the bat fears?  
"That's got nothing to do with me!"  
"Please!"  
"Go away, you short pest!" He threw the bat into some wood planks. That short comment must have set him off.  
"Look! I am not short! I am taller than the average PicoDevimon! And I've been trying to be reasonable with you, but my life is on the line here and I'm not going to be stopped by some crazy junk dealer when I'm this close to succeeding, so hand the Crest over and I promise, I will pay you back somehow! Please!"

I noticed my Crest that was being spun around in Vademon's hand.  
"He has my Crest that I threw away!" I told Bubbmon.  
"Bubb!"  
"Since I don't have my inquisitive heart… I don't really understand, but…" My whole mind still feels like there are so many blanks in it. How I'm even functioning right now is beyond me, though if I get my heart back, then maybe…  
"Bubb?"  
"I think I've been tricked."  
"Bubb! Bubb!" He nodded, informing me that I had indeed been tricked.  
"Let's take back my Crest and my inquisitive heart."  
"Bubb!" We then tried to find a way to open the door.

"Leave!" Vademon ordered.  
"I can't!" informed PicoDevimon once again.  
"Leave!"  
"I can't!"  
"Leave!"  
"I said, I can't!"  
"I'm telling you to leave!" We managed to get the door opened while the two Digimon were arguing with one another. Bubbmon ran out fast into the weird looking store.  
"Bubbmon!" I called out. Then there was the sound of something crashing and Vademon shouting in shock.  
"H-Hey!" "The Crest!"  
"Wait!" Bubbmon turned the corner with the Crest around his pacifier and Vademon and PicoDevimon close behind. "Give me back the Crest!" Vademon shouted.  
"Wait! Wait!" yelled PicoDevimon.  
"Bubbmon, hurry!" I insisted.

Bubbmon jumped back into my arms and the two Digimon ran straight into this pocket dimension and missed us as we hid behind the door. They quickly realized they'd been fooled and turned around but we were back on the other side and closed the door on their faces before locking it. That should buy us some time. I looked back at the Crest.  
"I have my Crest back! It's all thanks to you, Bubbmon!"  
"Bubb! Bubb!" He ran off into the shop once more.  
"Bubbmon!" I went after him with the sounds of Vademon and PicoDevimon banging on the door.  
"Open up!" "Open this door!" We ran through the halls until we found my heart sitting on the shelf.  
"It's my inquisitive heart!" I exclaimed. "Staying ignorant isn't what makes me, me! Wanting to know everything is a part of who I am!"  
"Bubb!" Bubbmon nodded once more.  
"My inquisitive heart… I'm sorry for throwing you away." I placed it up to my forehead as I heard the door get knocked down. No time to waste! "I want to know. I want to know." I suddenly felt rejuvenated and back to normal after I said that.

Good timing too as Vademon turned the corner with his ray gun out.  
"He selfishly took back the inquisitive heart!" Both of us ran and turned the corner as he fired his weapon and blasted part of the wall. "Wait!" We ran all over the shop as he fired more and more shots at us. At this rate, they'll be no cover for us left. We ran back into the pocket dimension. The only way out now is for us to fight our way out.  
"Bubbmon, hurry!" I requested. He responded by evolving back into Mochimon.  
"Mochimon!" He shouted.  
"Mochimon!" I said as we dodged another shot from that gun. Mochimon responded once more by evolving yet again back into Tentomon.  
"Tentomon!" He announced.  
"Tentomon!" I worried as he was almost hit by the shot. Another one just grazed me, thankfully, not hitting anything.  
"Koushiro-han!"

"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" Kabuterimon flew right towards the two hostile Digimon which forced the two of them to call off their attack as they ducked to avoid him.  
"Akuma no Nage Ki-chuu!" The translation of that was the Demon's Kiss-smooch. This must have been Vademon's signature attack as he blew a kiss before a whole asteroid field appeared before Kabuterimon and rammed right into him!  
"Kabuterimon!" I shouted as he was continually pounded by the wave of space rocks.  
"You'll only hurt yourself if you underestimate me!" The alien junk dealer taunted. This was bad. Vademon must be a Perfect-Level Digimon! We don't stand a chance unless Kabuterimon evolves once more. How, though, how!? I'm smart, I know I am, so how do I get this Crest to glow and give him the ability to win? I'm not strong, not like Taichi-san, Yamato-san or Ross-san, so what can I do? Wait a second… each one of us has our own strengths, strengths that we use to survive and defeat these evil Digimon, so what's mine? It's my intelligence and curiosity that's been helping the others!

My knowledge is my strength!

"Kabuterimon! Stand up!" I ordered as my Crest glowed, signaling that I had unlocked the method of evolving Kabuterimon. My Digivice turned purple while the buttons became maroon and it shot a light that hit my Crest and reflected back to Kabuterimon.  
"Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!" AtlurKabuterimon was a red-beetle that looked similar to Kabuterimon except way bigger and his horn looked less than a rhino's and more like a battle axe.

AtlurKabuterimon's first move was to charge forward into the asteroid field and he easily smashed his way through it. Vademon didn't seem that phased by the newly evolved Digimon and just responded with another one of his attacks.  
"Akuma no Nage Ki-chuu!" He vanished once more and in his place was a whole planet that threw off the large beetle.  
"AtlurKabuterimon!" I called out.  
"Take that! Now have you learned your lesson?"  
"Horn Buster!" AtlurKabuterimon roared as the planet exploded and sent Vademon flying to who knows where, perhaps destroying him. I screamed out as the whole dimension turned white and I felt myself fall before being caught by the enormous Digimon before we made our escape from this place.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

As Takeru and I went up the mountain path in the direction of where another one of our friends were on the Digivice, the ground began to shake.  
"It's an earthquake!" I yelled. A large explosion occurred right in front of us and flying out of it was a giant red beetle that must have been Kabuterimon's next evolutionary form. Sure enough it was as we ran towards where the bug landed and found Koushiro on the ground with Mochimon crawling towards him.  
"Koushiro-han! Koushiro-han! Are you okay?"  
"Mochimon…"  
"I used up too much of my energy…"  
"Mochimon, thank you." He hugged the small Digimon.  
"Koushiro-han! That hurts…" The Baby-Level Digimon informed as we ran up to them.

"Koushiro!" I shouted.  
"Mochimon!" Tsunomon cried.  
"Koushiro-san!" Takeru added.  
"Yamato-san! Takeru-kun!" Koushiro said.  
"Tsunomon! Patamon!" responded Mochimon.  
"Are you okay?" I asked. Koushiro nodded.  
"I'm glad we've found you!" Takeru was relieved.  
"Mochimon! You look like a baby when you're held like that!" teased the other Baby-Level Digimon.  
"Koushiro-han! Let me down!"  
"It's okay! You're tired." We all laughed after that.

"Chosen Children." We heard Gennai's voice say as we looked up to see a hologram of him in the air.  
"Gennai-san!" Koushiro exclaimed.  
"The distortions in this world haven't been corrected yet."  
"Eh?" We all said, though that wasn't exactly news to us, we've really haven't done anything to correct it yet.  
"Use the information on this world, available in the Digimon Analyzer I've sent, as a reference from now on!" He vanished once more. Koushiro opened his laptop to the so-called Analyzer.  
"This is the Digimon Analyzer." He informed us. "Here it is!" The screen showed us Tentomon's Perfect-Level. "AtlurKabuterimon! An Insect Digimon."  
"That's me!" Mochimon giggled.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

For PicoDevimon, things couldn't be worse. He knew the suffering that was to come but he was more scared of running away than reporting his failure.  
"Vamdemon-sama!"  
"Where is the Crest?" The silhouette ordered.  
"P-Please forgive me!"  
"No! Accept you punishment!" Bats began flying towards PicoDevimon and attacked him.  
"Save me!" He screamed. "Vamdemon-sama! Please forgive me!"

One thing was certain, the children's troubles were far from over, in fact they were just about to be getting worse…

* * *

And that was Chapter 25.

I've really got nothing much to say but it's good to be back home. See you guys on the 24th or 25th. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	27. The Sleeping Tyrant! TonosamaGekomon!

Okay, Chapter 26, sorry for the delay, I didn't really get started until late on the 24th and I've stayed up all night working on this.

Shout outs! One to user **tuangaming86** for the faves and follows! And to reviews!

To **MadDogLucario96** , Roger is all our favorite crazy alien from our favorite CIA family.

To **God of the Challenge** , yeah, I guess Vademon wanting PicoDevimon's guano as fertilizer would make sense but really, the show really never established why he wanted it and I fear the answer.

And to **tuangaming86** , well, I wasn't really planning on Ross telling a story about his mother to Taichi and Hikari but I think I might take your advice and do that in a later chapter... just give it a while, we still haven't gotten back to Japan yet.

Anyways, onward!

* * *

 **Chapter 26: The Sleeping Tyrant! TonosamaGekomon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+96. Morning.  
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We had decided to head towards the signal on the Digivice via the water of the mighty river that the lake was connected to. That was the reason why Taichi and I with Guilmon and Agumon were in the swan boat and Jou and Gomamon were on a raft of fishes. It was certainly faster than just walking there and of course we could avoid having to take a long route around for a bridge as we had done a few days ago.

"What beautiful weather!" Agumon declared as both dinosaurs were on the roof of the swan.  
"Such a nice breeze too." added Guilmon.  
"The water's sparkling, and it feels great!" Gomamon cheered.  
"Keep it up, you two!" Agumon told the two of us pedaling in the boat.  
"We'd like more than anything to trade places with you…" Guilmon said.  
"But we're just too short to reach the pedals!" The two dinosaurs laughed and teased.  
"You have absolutely no intention of switching with us to begin with!" Taichi argued.  
"Is it that obvious?" Agumon questioned.  
"Very obvious."  
"I swear, say anything more you two, and I'll throw you overboard!" I threatened.  
"Stupid Jou, he doesn't have to do any pedaling." Taichi grumbled.  
"True. But you're not gonna have to smell like fish for a week!" He complained.  
"Hey, shoreline, straight ahead!" Gomamon yelled out, as we followed his advice and set ashore at the bottom of a large cliff face. And at the top of the cliff face was quite a large castle that was very Edo in nature.

"That's…" Taichi said dumbfounded.  
"A castle…" Jou finished.  
"If I didn't know any better, I'd almost say we were home." I told the others.  
"Yeah, definitely looks like we're in Japan." Taichi then checked his Digivice. "And the signal is coming from inside!" We followed along the rock face until we found a way up to the castle, a long staircase that was carved into the rock.  
"Ugh… would it be too much to ask for there to be an elevator somewhere in this world?" Jou complained.  
"Oh, relax; it's not as bad as Piccolomon's place." I reminded him.

We finished getting to the top of the stairs and proceeded to open up the door. Inside was absolute chaos. Running all over the place were these small tadpole looking creatures and these frog creatures with a horned instrument around their necks.  
"Frogs and tadpoles?" Taichi questioned.  
"Are they Digimon?" I asked.  
"What are they doing?" Jou wondered.  
"So busy, ribbit!" One of the frogs said.  
"Those are Gekomon." Guilmon explained. "Adult-Level Digimon, and despite their silly appearance, they love music. With the three holes on the tip of his tongue, he uses the horn wrapped around his neck to perform his special attack, Crash Symphony."  
"So busy, tama!" One of the tadpoles shouted.  
"And those smaller ones are Otamamon." informed Agumon. "Child-Level Amphibian Digimon. Their special attack, Lullaby Bubble, lulls one to sleep." So the castle is occupied by music loving Digimon of the amphibious verity.

"So busy, ribbit!" A Gekomon ran past us.  
"Hey, hey!" Gomamon got his attention. "Why are you in such a rush?"  
"Why? The princess said she wants fried rice with roast pork, shrimp and assorted vegetables right this minute, ribbit!"  
"Fried rice?" We all questioned.  
"No, ribbit!" A different Gekomon informed. "The princess said she wants cold yaki-udon, ribbit!" Yaki-udon were thick stir-fried Japanese noodles.  
"Cold yaki-udon?" We all questioned again.  
"What are you saying, ribbit?" A third Gekomon came up. "The princess wants simmering okara miso soup made Mediterranean Sea style, ribbit!"  
"Okara miso soup made Mediterranean Sea style?" We questioned for a third time.  
"No, ribbit! It's fried rice, ribbit!"  
"Cold yaki-udon, ribbit!"  
"Okara miso soup, Mediterranean Sea style, ribbit!" The frogs argued with each other.

"Now, now." Taichi tried to help them. "What if you made all of that and gave it…"  
"They're all wrong, tama!" An Otamamon yelled.  
"What now?" Jou asked.  
"The princess wants a gaudy looking polka dotted dress, tama!"  
"No, tama!" A second tadpole crawled up. "She wants a retro ring, tama!"  
"Polka-dotted dress, tama!"  
"Retro ring, tama!" All the Digimon continued with the arguing.

"Man, this princess sounds like Queenie from Blackadder, hopefully without the whole off with the head treatment." I joked.  
"If this princess jerks around her servants like this…" Jou said with a smile. We all were kinda smiling at the whole chaos that this princess was causing, which was kinda wrong but we couldn't truly help ourselves.  
"She must be extremely selfish!" Taichi finished.  
"Hey, didn't you guys say you were in a hurry?" Agumon reminded the other Digimon.  
"That's right!" They all shouted before running off. As soon as they did that, the sounds of grand trumpets began to fill the halls.

"The princess has arrived! Ribbit, ribbit!" A Gekomon called out. And walking out of the hallway to the grand staircase in white and pink dress, white gloves with a fan in them and a crown on her head was someone we really did not but should've expected.  
"Mimi-kun!" "Mimi-chan!" We cried out.  
"Oh, it's you. It's been a long time!" Wow… she looks… great in that dress.  
"What are you doing here?" Taichi asked.  
"What am I doing here?" She opened up her hand fan. "I'm being a princess. Can't you tell?"  
"Then that means the selfish princess around here…" Agumon pieced together. Oh please don't say it aloud!  
"Was you?!" The others said while I face-palmed at their words. You don't insult a woman right in front of her! Her reaction was expected at those words.  
"Who are you calling selfish?!" She turned her nose and crossed her arms. "How rude!" Agreed.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back in the mountains where Koushiro was being held captive to Vademon, PicoDevimon was waiting for the junk dealer to return the boy's Crest.  
"PicoDevimon!" The bat freeze up when he heard the call of his master.  
"Va-Vamdemon-sama!" A swarm of bats flew up to him and formed a portal that served as communication for the two.  
"What is currently happening with our plans?"  
"Uh, well, the boy with the Tentomon has been trapped by Vademon and I'm just about to trade for the Crest of Knowledge."  
"And our plans involving the castle?"  
"Everything is going well there. I checked last night. All of the Gekomon are treating that Chosen Child like a princess. If they keep this up, the Crest of Purity will never activate."  
"I need not to remind you what will happen if you repeat your mistakes, do you?"  
"Y-Yes, of course. The Crest of Knowledge will be stolen and the Crest of Purity will remain dim."  
"I'm expecting results." The portal collapsed and the bats flew away. PicoDevimon tapped his talon on the ground as he was still waiting for the strange looking salesman.  
"Where the heck is he?" The bat questioned. For the third time today, Vademon jumped from his hole and scared PicoDevimon once more.  
"Thank you for waiting!" He held out the Crest.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

Mimi led us to her room that she had been residing in during this time and we quickly brought her up to speed about what was going on. She was in fact quite surprised that no time had passed back home but then again, we all had the same reaction to that.  
"Anyway, it's good to see you're safe." I informed her.  
"Yeah, we were getting kinda worried." Ross added.  
"Come on, go and change!" Taichi told her. "Let's get out of here!"  
"Huh?" She questioned.  
"Something wrong, Mimi-kun?" I asked.  
"Why do I have to change?"  
"What do you mean why?" Agumon questioned. "It'll be hard to walk in that dress!"  
"Why do I have to walk?" We were kinda taken aback by her line of questioning.  
"Are you expecting us to travel while carrying you on our backs?" suggested Ross.  
"I'm not going." Now our jaws dropped. "There's no guarantee that we'll be able to return to our own world so why should I bother to go traveling out there where it's dangerous?"  
"Hey, Mimi-kun…" I tried to say but she interrupted me.  
"Besides, I have everything in here! A bath, a soft bed, and good food! What's more, I'm the princess of this castle!"

"Mimi, is something wrong?" A familiar voice called out from the hall.  
"That strange voice…" Agumon said.  
"It's Palmon!" Gomamon exclaimed.  
"It helps having you here, Palmon!" I shouted.  
"Come in here and talk some sense into her!" requested Guilmon.  
"About what?" Palmon was wearing a dress… and we face planted to the floor.  
"Palmon! You too?!" I yelled in her face.  
"Hey. Mimi-chan and Palmon." Taichi spoke up again. "We can't waste time playing along with your jokes! Hurry up and get ready!" Ross rose up his finger as if to speak only for Mimi to say what he probably was going to say first.  
"I am not joking around! I'm serious about staying here! If you don't have anything else to say, then hurry up and get out!"  
"Hey, Mimi. Why are you mad?" Palmon asked.  
"Palmon, you be quiet!"

"Give me a break!" Taichi was upset. "You think we'll just agree with you quietly and leave?"  
"He's right!" I spoke up. "Besides, don't you know what we went through to get here?"  
"I don't even want to know." She turned her nose at us.  
"Oh, that's it!" roared Taichi. "Now you can never make me leave this place!" He sat on the floor. "I won't move from this spot until you say you're coming!"  
"Agreed! We're not leaving until you come with us!" Ross added.  
"Me neither!" The three Digimon followed suit.  
"Oh really? Well, I have an idea." Mimi pulled out a small bell and suddenly all the Gekomon and Otamamon in the castle appeared right behind us.  
"Princess! Is there a problem, ribbit ribbit?" Oh this isn't ending well for us.  
"These people want to leave, so show them the exit!"  
"Understood, ribbit ribbit!" Suddenly they grabbed all of us and dragged us out the castle.  
"Wait, stop it!" "Let us go!" "Mimi-chan, what happened to you?!"

They lowered the drawbridge to the castle and then threw us right outside, hard.  
"That hurt!" Taichi said.  
"Treat your guests more courteously!" Gomamon yelled at the Gekomon. I readjusted my glasses.  
"In any case, I wonder what happened to Mimi-kun." I wondered.  
"This might be some sort of coping mechanism for her. She's probably used to being spoiled as an only child and all of this just reminds her of home." suggested Ross.  
"Whatever it is, she's assuming too much because these frogs are spoiling her!" Taichi guessed.  
"You're exactly right, ribbit." We quickly turned our attention to the Gekomon and Otamamon by the front door.  
"What do you mean?" I asked.  
"It's better if you follow us, tama."

We followed them through the castle until we walked across a walkway that led to a large structure that was behind the castle, almost like a second smaller castle. Inside the whole building was actually just one giant room.  
"This is our lord, ribbit." A Gekomon motioned to a large stage with speakers and lights on it, like it was the stage for a rock band or something. And on it was a giant fat frog with two large horns coming out of his back.  
"That's a pretty big statue." Taichi observed.  
"It's not a statue, ribbit. It's our lord himself, ribbit!" We all did a double take.  
"You mean to tell us that thing is alive?" Agumon questioned.  
"Yes, tama!"  
"He's been like this for the past three hundred years, ribbit!" Wow, that's a long nap. "It's said that the shock from losing a karaoke match put him into this state, ribbit!"  
"To bring back our lord, a voice that is lovelier than the one he lost to must sing to him, ribbit! So, we've tried holding a karaoke competition every year, ribbit, but our lord doesn't even twitch, ribbit."  
"Of course, this made us think that the legend is really a lie, ribbit, but…"

"So what exactly does this have to do with Mimi-kun and you guys being on hand and foot for her?" Ross asked.  
"We were getting to that, tama. Just at that moment, we heard there was a human girl who was good at singing, and we welcomed her here like a princess, tama!"  
"Wait a moment. Was the person that told you this a small bat-like Digimon?" I questioned.  
"Yes, ribbit!" We all looked at each other. Looks like we stumbled upon another plot by PicoDevimon.  
"Hate to break it to you, but that bat was planning for all this to happen."  
"Well, it didn't seem that way at first, tama. She seemed very much happy to help. She even got on stage immediately and started to sing. We knew she was the one because our lord began to twitch, tama. Of course, she stopped when she forgot the words."  
"So to help her remember, we gave her a feast as a sort of payment in order to get her to remember, ribbit."  
"Oh, I can see how this fell apart." Guilmon interrupted.  
"Yeah, she came back on stage and started to sing once more but then thought that we should have more of a singing ambience or something, hence the mirror ball and the lights you see behind you, ribbit."  
"And when we did all that, she then claimed she was tired, ribbit!"

"And after so long, this is how things ended up, tama!"  
"At first, the princess sang for us once every three days, ribbit, but… Now she uses that to her advantage to get everything she wants!"  
"When we try to refuse her demands… she threatens to not sing for us! We can't talk back to her at all when she says that, tama!"  
"So that's how Mimi-kun became selfish…" I concluded while Taichi looked to be in deep thought.  
"That's why we have a request for you, ribbit!"  
"Can you get the princess to sing for us, tama?"  
"But I doubt she'll even listen to us…" Agumon worried.  
"Yeah, she didn't seem too willing to follow us when we talked to her." informed Gomamon.

"Okay. Leave it to me!" Taichi slapped his chest in a determined way.  
"You'll ask her for us, ribbit?!"  
"Hey, Taichi!" I tried to warn him. If he tries to ask Mimi, this might not end too well.  
"So what you're saying is, getting this big guy to wake up is all you need, right? Just leave the signing to me!" We all jaw dropped except Ross who looked even more excited.  
"Hold up. You're not that great of a front man." He said. He walked up to Taichi and began whispering to him.  
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."  
"Come on!" He started to push him away. "One of you Gekomon come with us. If we're doing this, we're doing it right.  
"What about us?" I asked.  
"You guys try and sing until we come back."  
"What?!" That's really not good, I'm a terrible singing and I don't know how the Digimon are.

The next few minutes we got set up and we tried to wake their lord. We failed miserably. I knew I wasn't going to do it, heck I'm one-hundred percent sure I got the lyrics to the song they used wrong. Then Agumon, Guilmon, and Gomamon tried and the result was the same. Not a single twitch from the Gekomon and Otamamon's lord. Suddenly the lights went out in the room as a different song began to swell from the speakers.  
" _I don't care if you got no legs! Dance on your knees!"_ I heard Ross' voice over the speakers. The lights activated and revealed Ross and Taichi on the stage… with Ross in a blonde wig going to his neck and Taichi in a curly black wig with a black mustache.  
" _We're soul alone, and soul really matters to me. Take a look around. You're out of touch! I'm out of time! (Time!) But I'm out of my head when you're not around! You're out of touch! I'm out of time! (Time!) But I'm out of my head when you're not around!"_ They went with this song for three more minutes and I have no idea what the song is or who they're dressed as. We all quickly noticed that the lord of the castle was still asleep.

"No good…" Taichi moaned. Ross threw off his wig and stormed off.  
"That frog wouldn't know good music if it bit him on his tail! Is there a room I can stay and vent in?" Ross shouted. A Gekomon quickly followed him.  
"It's impossible to wake him up unless it's Mimi-kun singing… though you guys did a good job." I informed.  
"You guys!" Palmon shouted as she walked into the room.  
"Palmon!" Taichi said.  
"I was worried about you. What happened?"  
"What do you mean what happened?" Agumon questioned. "Haven't you realized that Mimi's been acting strangely?"  
"Strangely? You think so too? I've been thinking that maybe she has!" We all slumped.  
"She finally crossed the finish line." groaned Guilmon.  
"At least figure that out for yourself." Gomamon added. Palmon rubbed her head in embarrassment.

 _Gekomon Castle, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+96. Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

Okay, this plan is sure to work! I came up with the idea to work around Mimi. If the Gekomon and Otamamon get their lord back, then Mimi would be thrown out in a heartbeat and we could finally get a move on. The problem is that Mimi knows this and won't give up this life of luxury she's been living for a while now. So with the help of Palmon, we'll get Mimi to sing… though she won't know it until it's too late. The plan is for Palmon to get Mimi to sing into a recording device that we have set up; then we play it back to the lord of the castle, he'll wake up and Mimi's 'reign of terror' will come to an end.

"A recording, huh? Good idea!" Jou was proud of my idea.  
"I can be pretty smart when I want to be."  
"Here she comes!" Gomamon said as we were outside her room and we ducked down to hide.  
"What's this?" Mimi asked Palmon.  
"A karaoke set."  
"I can see that. What's it doing here?"  
"I just suddenly felt like listening to your beautiful singing." She handed her the mic. "Well, here we go." Everything was working on the recorder so we got her! This is gonna work perfectly… until my eardrums ruptured as she screamed into the mic!

We were quickly seized and the five of us including Palmon were all dragged down into the dungeons and locked in a cell.  
"I can easily figure out what you guys are thinking." Mimi boasted.  
"Mimi-chan!" I said to her. "Open your eyes!"  
"Do you realize right now what you're doing?" Jou questioned.  
"Oh? Did I do something wrong?"  
"You can't even figure that out anymore?" I argued. "Don't you feel anything by doing this to your friends?"  
"It's not just us!" Agumon spoke up. "You're causing a lot of trouble for the Gekomon too!" Mimi merely huffed at the comment and walked away.  
"Mimi!" "Mimi-kun!" "Mimi-chan!" We all said as she walked towards the edge of the cell where Palmon was.  
"Doing this is too dreadful of you, Mimi!" Palmon told her. "When you get like this…" She had tears in her eyes. "When you act like this… _I hate you!_ " This came as a shock to all of us especially to Mimi.  
"I see." She muttered. "Well, I hate you too!" She and the Gekomon then walked away, leaving us to rot in this cell.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I was sitting in a chair in a small guest bedroom after I stormed off, still fuming on the lack of taste that giant frog had when there was a knock on the door.  
"Hello, the Princess has requested your presence for a banquet this evening, ribbit." A Gekomon said. Mimi's inviting me to dinner? That's a bit of a surprise. But it might help as I could use the dinner to maybe convince her to sing for the Gekomon. Long shot but who knows?  
"Uh, is this a causal event?" I motioned to my clothes.  
"No, formal, ribbit."  
"Well, I kinda got only one outfit." The Gekomon motioned and brought up another one of them holding a tux. My eyes widened. "That'll work." I spent the next few minutes getting ready.

"Stupid tie!" I was having some difficulties with the tie around my neck before I finally got it figured out. I then went over to a mirror and got a better look at myself. Man, I look and feel like Bond. Dalton, more specifically. I headed out of the room and walked down the stairs with John Barry's _'Into Vienna'_ playing in my head. I walked down until a Gekomon motioned me into a room. It was a fairly large dining room with a large table full of food and two chairs at either end. Mimi was sitting the far one.  
"Good evening, Princess." I bowed, I feel the whole calling her Princess might actually help, keep her on her good side. Lord knows, I don't want to know what her bad side is.  
"Good evening." She responded as she sat back down while I took my seat. She then rang a bell and multiple Gekomon ran in with plates full of food and set them down in front of us. "Mm. So yummy!" She responded the dish in front of her before she began to eat. I followed suit but we didn't say anything during that time.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Don't like it?"  
"It's fine. But… I'm not really the one for fancy food like caviar and that sort of thing. Give me some chicken-fried steak, rice and gravy any day. You know, I'm surprised you invited me for dinner after what happened earlier."  
"Well, I was told earlier you were here, apparently, you sang in a blonde wig?" She smiled if maybe in a sort of worrisome way for me, like she's secretly upset that I even attempted to have her leave this place. I laughed.  
"When it comes to singing there, it was 'Go big or go home' for me. Of course, that frog doesn't know good music when he hears it."  
"Well, I guess you might not have the right voice for him." I shrugged.  
"Guess not. But you do." The whole room suddenly felt like it dropped a few degrees when I said that.

"Mimi-kun. Look, I understand everything going on. You've gotten tired of all the walking, all the sleeping out in the open, all the danger; you've reached your limit. You're not the only one. But we need everyone to fix this world in order for us to save our home. As we said earlier to you, both worlds are connected, and it's only gonna get worse if we do nothing."  
"I don't really like where this conversation is going."  
"Mimi, look around, the Gekomon just want their lord back, and you're their only hope. It's clear you can do this, but instead you're taking advantage of their desperation. This is not going to end well for you. If you keep this up and keep pushing them… well… they might go full Marie Antoinette on you." She raised her eyebrows on that comment.

"I invited you because I just wanted to have someone to enjoy this meal with, but instead you're just like the others who want me to leave this place." The look on her face when she said that… chilled me to the bone.  
"Mimi-kun, we just…"  
"No just! I should have thrown into the dungeon like the others!"  
"What?!" I shouted.  
"They tried to pull a fast one on me by getting me to sing into a recorder but I'm too smart for them." My blood was now starting to boil at every word she was beginning to say. "I'm the princess here and nothing and no one is going to take that from me!" I snapped.  
"ENOUGH!" I roared as I threw the plates in front of me to the ground, shattering them all. "I tried to be kind and simply try to convince you but you clearly have your heart set on all this! And it's clear where you stand with your friends, so I hope that everything bad happens to you soon!" I stormed to the door. "AND TO THINK THAT I ACTUALLY LIKED YOU!" I slammed the door and the last thing I saw was her jaw dropped. I then walked back to the room.

I went back to the room and got changed back into my normal outfit and sat in the chair waiting for the Gekomon and Otamamon to drag me away to the dungeons. The fact that they were overdue must mean that Mimi was still shocked at my words. I was slowly beginning to dose off when there was a knock on the door to the outside patio. I opened up the curtains to see Sora standing there which I opened up the door.

"Ever heard of using the front door?" I teased.  
"May I come in?"  
"Sure." She walked in with Piyomon and I sat back down. "Hey, Piyomon."  
"Hi, Ross."  
"So, still wanting to be alone?" I asked, getting that question out of the way first. She nodded. "I have to warn you Sora, you're running out of time to be alone with your thoughts. If we all managed to meet up again and you're the only one left, I'm gonna have to tell the others."  
"I know, and I understand… So, problems with Mimi-chan?"  
"Like you wouldn't believe. She's lost it. She's locked the others up and I'm just waiting for my turn. I really don't know what to do. I warned her that things will go south eventually and she just ignored it. The power has gone to her head, I'm afraid." Sora closed her eyes and thought carefully.  
"I have an idea." She started to walk back to the door. Guess she wasn't going to tell me nor was she really talking much to me but I guess that comes with the whole wanting to be alone. I think the only reason she even came to me was that I knew she was keeping tabs on us. She went back outside and now I could only sit and wait… and pray Sora succeeds.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Devimon and Etemon were closing towards me in this dark rift that I found myself in. I was terrified about what they would do to me and I quickly ran as fast as I could. I soon found myself running into the Gekomon and the Otamamon. Surly they would help protect me from those two monsters.  
"Gekomon! Otamamon! Save me!"  
"No, tama!" "No, ribbit!" They said. They refused me? They knew the cost!  
"Fine! I won't sing for you anymore!"  
"That's okay, ribbit. You wouldn't sing for us even if we did help you, ribbit."  
"We're going home to sleep, ribbit." They all started to walk away. I quickly looked back to Devimon and Etemon.  
"Wait! I'll sing! So please, help me!" I panicked but they ignored me and vanished. I backed up to find the others near me. "You guys! Help me!"  
"You're no friend of ours!" Taichi replied.  
"It servers you right." Agumon said.  
"Have you forgotten what you've done to us?" Jou asked.  
"It's clear where you stand…" Ross repeated as they all vanished, leaving only Palmon.  
"Palmon!"  
"I hate you, Mimi!"  
"No!" I shouted as I turned back to see the two evil Digimon almost upon me. Come back, you guys! I'm sorry! "AHHHHHHH!" I screamed as my world turned dark.  
"Mimi-chan…" A voice called out from the darkness.

Oh thank goodness, it was just a nightmare… except I saw a shadow hovering over my bed, I almost got scared again until my eyes adjusted and I could see it was Sora. Wait, is this another dream?  
"Sora…san?"  
"You know what you've done wrong, do you?" She asked me.  
"I… I'm sorry!"  
"Then you know what you should do to fix things, right?"  
"Yeah." She grabbed my hand.  
"Thank goodness. You're really a good girl, Mimi-chan." Everything went white and I opened my eyes again to see my Crest was glowing green.  
"This is…! Sora…san?" Wait, was the door to the patio open when I went to bed? Never mind, I know what I need to do immediately. I got changed and headed out the door to one of the guest rooms.

"Who is it?" Ross said groggily as I knocked on the door.  
"It's Mimi." I told him.  
"You with your guards? What kept you?" I opened up the door and walked in. He looked confused. "What happened to your dress?"  
"I put it away… I… I'm done… I'm done being selfish."  
"Mimi-kun…" I ran into him and hugged him.  
"I'm sorry!" I began to cry into his shoulder. "I wanted to help the Gekomon but I got too caught up with the whole princess thing and I just became too greedy! Please, forgive me! I'm so sorry!" He patted me on the back.  
"It's okay, Mimi-kun. Just let it all out." He said as I just kept crying.

"I get it, as I said at dinner; you just got too caught up in it all and had just reached your limit. I'm not holding that against you."  
"I've done so many wrong things!"  
"Yeah, but you know what to do to fix them, right?" I stopped crying and wiped away the tears before nodding.  
"Uh-huh. I just came to realize that without you guys and Palmon, I'd really have nothing. I dreamed that you all abandoned me to those villains we faced and…"  
"Don't. I promise you, Mimi-kun, that if you want me to, I'll be there for you at your side. And I also promise you that we will find a way home."  
"Thank you, Ross-san. You're a true friend."  
"You're welcome. Speaking of friends…"  
"You go get them. I've got a song to sing and a castle lord to wake up." I told him as I walked down the other building to get ready.  
" _Way to go, Sora."_ Ross thought.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We were all fast asleep in the cell before we heard the sound of the door being unlocked and turned to see Ross with a few Gekomon.  
"Ross? What is it?" I questioned.  
"Come out, ribbit."  
"Yeah, you're gonna miss the show." Ross said. Show? Wait, do they mean Mimi? We followed them to the lord's building where the whole castle was assembled.  
"So what did you mean by a show?" Jou asked. Ross did nothing but smile. We looked ahead and saw the stage rise up to see Mimi in her usual getup with a sad look on her face.  
"Mimi-chan!" "Mimi-kun!" We said, though Ross said nothing.

"Gekomon and Otamamon… Ross-san, Taichi-san, Jou-senpai, Agumon, Guilmon, Gomamon… And Palmon… Everyone… I'm sorry!" We were shocked at that answer. We didn't really expect an apology especially after everything that had happened. The whole crowd began to whisper as they were concerned about the whole change in attitude for Mimi. "I know that just apologizing might not be enough, but I've come to my senses! I've realized how horribly I've been treating all of you! So…"  
"Mimi, sing for us!" Palmon shouted.  
"We want to hear you sing, princess, ribbit!" Tears came out of Mimi's eyes as she wiped them away, though it looked like this wasn't the first time tonight.  
"You guys…"

"Start the music!" ordered Palmon as the music began to swell through the speakers.  
"What did you do?" I asked Ross.  
"I had dinner with her and snapped and yelled at her." We quickly looked back at him. "I was pretty sure I was joining you guys in the dungeon." He said as we quickly turned our attention back to Mimi.  
" _When I wish on a star, with my pride riding the wind! I can see a tomorrow that can't be erased by today…"_ The head-tail on the Gekomon's lord was beginning to rise, meaning that Mimi was waking him up! _"I wish! Why are we here? Please tell me soon. The things we see aren't everything! I'm shivering with the cold, so I wrap my arms with a jacket. Before I realize it, it becomes transparent and turns into hope!"_ She stopped when the lord stood up on his large webbed feet and turned around towards the crowd.

"TonosamaGekomon, ribbit! Our lord has returned!" Tonosama means esteemed feudal lord and with the name Gekomon, it means that he is indeed the lord of the Gekomon. "The low frequency waves from his horn releases his special attack, Kobushi Tone, ribbit!"  
"I was having a wonderful nap. Who woke me up, ribbit?!" Oh, you've got to be kidding me! He stomped his foot down and we all evacuated the building as he started to tear up the place.  
"What the heck is up with that?! He's a villain!" Gomamon questioned.  
"No one told us he was a tyrant!" Jou yelled.  
"We shouldn't have woken him up if we know about this, ribbit!" Looks like the Gekomon and Otamamon were not aware of his nasty attitude either. Now Princess Mimi was starting to look much better in comparison.  
"Kobushi Tone!" That translates to Samurai Tone. _"I want you to leave me stranded in the rain~"_ He sang before blowing a large force of sound from his trumpets that blew all of us but Mimi out of the building and into the water below.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Terrific, my reward for doing the right thing is a quick way to be killed! TonosamaGekomon blew his horns that blew the others out and a chuck of the roof fell apart and was dropping right towards me! I closed my eyes and waited for the quick pain before it would all be over.  
"Mimi!" I heard Palmon shout. "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" I heard a smashing sound from right above me. "Are you okay, Mimi?" I looked up to see Togemon had destroyed the rubble that was going to crush me.  
"Togemon, I'm sorry."  
"It doesn't matter anymore."  
"Togemon… I love you, Togemon." I walked over and hugged her boxing glove, the only non-prickly part of her.  
"I love you too, Mimi."  
"Togemon…" I really was truly blessed to have wonderful, caring friends, especially Togemon.

I quickly picked up the mic and turned my attention to the loud blow hard. "Hey! You ungrateful swine! Don't you know who woke you up?"  
"Who cares about that?!" Man, he really liked sleeping. He walked towards us before a missile exploded right in between us. We turned to see outside was Ikkakumon, Greymon, and Growmon all ready for action. "Now you've done it!"  
"Mega Flame!" "Exhaust Flame!" "Harpoon Vulcan!"  
"Kobushi Tone! _"That is a woman's disposition~"_ His sound waves from his horn completely destroyed the attacks coming towards him and shoved the three Digimon to the ground.  
"Unbelievable!" Taichi was dumbfounded.  
"What power!" Ross added.  
"He looks retarded, but he's actually pretty strong!" informed Jou.  
"Tonosama Jump!" He jumped out of the building and straight for the others below.

"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" The two Perfect Digimon rammed the frog and sent him back up here in the building.  
"Rib-bit?!" He questioned as Togemon held me tight as we jumped back down to the others below, giving the others a clear shot to deal with that tyrant.  
"Go, MetalGreymon!" "Deal with him, MegaloGrowmon!" The guys ordered.  
"Atomic Blaster!" The two ports on MegaloGrowmon's chest glowed before firing two large balls of energy towards the frog that hit him square in his gut that sent him kneeling over.  
"Giga Destroyer!" The two missiles that MetalGreymon launched flew until they went directly into both of TonosamaGekomon's horns and exploded, destroying the entire building.  
"Nice shot, MetalGreymon!" "Good support, MegaloGrowmon!"

 _TonosamaGekomon's Castle, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+97. Early Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After MetalGreymon's shot that resembled Luke Skywalker hitting a thermal exhaust port two meters wide, we all went back to the castle to sleep for the rest of what was left of the night as we were dead tired. Come the early dawn hours, we all got back up to check out the tasteless in music frog. He wasn't destroyed as his head-tail was still poking out of the rubble but it looked like he fell back asleep.  
"Sleep for the rest of your life!" Mimi declared. We all laughed at that comment. "Guys, I really am sorry."  
"It's okay, Mimi-kun. Let's just move on from this, okay?" Taichi said.  
"Agreed. Live and learn." I added.  
"Come on, guys. We still need to meet up with Yamato-kun and Takeru-chan." Jou reminded us.  
"I'll take Mimi-kun on the swan boat. You guys ride with the fish." I informed.  
"What?! Why do I have ride with them?" Taichi questioned.  
"Are you expecting me to ride with the fish?" Mimi asked.  
"Taichi! If you value your life, do not answer that!" I warned. Taichi crossed his arms and grumbled something under his voice as we all laughed again before we said our goodbyes to the Gekomon and Otamamon and returned to the beach.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

While things were starting to look better for the Chosen Children, the same could not be said for PicoDevimon. Word had reached Vamdemon about what transpired at the castle and how the Crest of Purity had glowed, PicoDevimon's punishment was sealed. He tried to argue that he wasn't even there for him to even muck it up but two failures in less than one day was too much as the bat was now currently chained up and hanging upside down a fiery pit.  
"Hot! Hot! Hot! Help me!" He screamed as his dark master watched.

One thing was for sure, this mysterious Vamdemon was preparing to make his terrifying appearance to the Chosen Children…

* * *

And that was Chapter 26! Now hang on because I've got a lot to say.

First when Taichi gets his ears blown out, it reminds me of this scene from the British Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted. (Thank you YouTube The Mann for introducing me this show with the video [Hearts of Iron IV] When Italy Leads the Axis) The show has so many funny moments like 'You let Dougal do a funeral!' to 'I hear you're a racist now, Father!' to an entire episode where they parodied the movie Speed with an episode called Speed 3 which you can watch on YouTube. The scene in question is when Ted and Dougal discover that many of the local babies look suspiciously like the Milk Man Pat Mustard, so they spy on him to find that he is indeed delivering more than his normal dairy products. Dougal sits in the back seat of their car with a listening device and recorder and says he's got the volume turned up all the way, only for a loud truck to drive by and honk his horn causing Dougal to pass out due to his eardrums exploding.

Next is the song Mimi sings which is the end credits song, _I Wish_ which will be used for only one more episode before they go to the second end credits sequence with the song _Keep On!_ by Ai Maeda, Mimi's voice actress. (Fun note, she voiced Lucy Liu's character in that animated backstory sequence for her character in Kill Bill Vol. 1.)

Finally, I will say the next chapter will be on the 28th and I'll try to make the deadline for that one. I'm kinda running out of time because classes will begin again come the 20th of August and then I'm gonna have to drop the deadlines and have less time to write, but this story will not be abandoned. Heck, it should be finished before New Years.

Take care, everyone.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	28. Radiant Wings! Garudamon!

Chapter 27, folks!

I'll get right to the reviews.

To **Tuangaming** , glad you're enjoying the story. We still got plenty to go.

To **MadDogLucario96** , yep, Taichi and Ross went the whole nine yards with the Hall & Oates act.

Anyways, let's get on with it. After this, we're half-way through the story... of course.. we know the adventure won't truly end there...

* * *

 **Chapter 27: Radiant Wings! Garudamon!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+97. Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After we had left TonosamaGekomon's castle, we headed towards the rally point at the base of one of the larger mountains that was in the nearby range via the water. As decided earlier, Mimi, Palmon, Gigimon and myself were riding in the swan boat while Jou, Gomamon, Koromon and Taichi were riding on a raft of Gomamon's Flying Fishes. It took most of the afternoon but we finally could see the shore at base of the mountain, which thank goodness we took the water route, we'd probably not make it before dark if we walked.

"All right, we're here!" Taichi informed us as we started to get off our respective transports.  
"Ugh… I'm never getting the smell of seafood out of my clothes." moaned Jou.  
"All this peddling has made me exhausted." I groaned. Taichi walked to the side of the swan after I got out.  
"Come on, princess!" He said to Mimi.  
"Don't call me a princess!"  
"I'm just kidding!" He laughed.  
"Hey!" A voice shouted from the east. We turned to see coming down the route was Yamato, Tsunomon, Takeru, Patamon, Koushiro and Mochimon.  
"It's Yamato!" Jou cheered as the others rejoined us.

"You've turned smaller since I last saw you." Palmon informed the four Baby-Level Digimon.  
"Leave us alone!" They shouted. Well, it was great we were all back together again, but we're still missing one person.  
"Where's Sora?" Taichi asked. Uh oh.  
"We didn't see her." Yamato told us.  
"I see… Where could she have gone?"  
"I…" Mimi spoke up. "I think I might have seen her." We all turned our attention to her.  
"Where?"  
"At the Gekomon's palace. But… it might have been a dream… It's actually because of that dream that I stopped my selfishness."  
"So that's what happened." Jou said.

"Actually, it wasn't a dream." I confessed.  
"Huh?" They were all were confused.  
"I have a confession. I know where Sora is."  
"Where?" Taichi questioned.  
"When PicoDevimon tried to feed us those mushrooms, I lied about that."  
"But I thought you remembered something Palmon said about the mushrooms that made you realized they were bad." Koromon remembered.  
"No, that was a lie. I didn't know until Sora said from the bushes. She was hiding and didn't want to be found but… I ended up tackling her, exposing the fact that she was shadowing us."  
"So, why then hasn't Sora-san come to us?" Takeru asked.  
"I don't know. I tried to get her to join us, but she wouldn't follow, I assumed that she wanted to be alone or something. I wasn't too worried, one, had to deal with the mushrooms and two, she still had Piyomon."  
"There's no use thinking about why she's done it. We're not her." Yamato dismissed our wondering of Sora's reasons before he looked at his Digivice, some of the rest of us followed suit and saw on the map that Sora's Digivice was not too far ahead of us. "We'll have to catch her first."  
"This is like playing hide-and-seek." Taichi rationalized.  
"It's coming from the north." Koushiro gave us a direction. We followed along to hopefully find Sora.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Deep in the dark mountains, there resided a sinister castle. It looked like a dark side version of the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy. This was the castle of the villainous Vamdemon that PicoDevimon served. And things were not going well for the small bat. His continual failures had all but jeopardized the plans his master had established. His screams could be heard far outside the castle walls as fell down the stairs in the main chambers. Walking down the steps after him was the Digimon known as Vamdemon. He was a vampire with a long black cape, blonde hair, pale skin with a red mask covering his eyes, and a dark blue outfit similar to an old Eastern European count.

"I've grown quite tired of your incompetence."  
"P-Please forgive me… Vamdemon-sama…!"  
"Courage, Honor, Hope, Friendship… The children's Crests have regained their light one after the other."  
"I am most ashamed for my failures! B-But, Vamdemon-sama! Not all of the Crests have activated yet!" The small bat fluttered his wings and activated a portal that showed Sora and Piyomon. "Especially this girl. Her Crest of Love will never glow! The truth is, it's because I've given her some advice. The other seven should be gathering by her side any time now. If we wait for that… we will crush the children with one swift stroke!" Vamdemon paused as he considered the bat's plan.  
"When that time comes, call for me. I'll personally send those children straight to Hell." He soon walked away.  
"Yes, sir!"

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Hey! Sora!" I yelled out. It was getting close to night and there still was no sign of her, despite what the Digivice was saying.  
"Sora-san!" Koushiro called.  
"Sora! Come on out!" Ross shouted.  
"Hey… Let's stop here for today and find some place to rest. It's too dangerous to wander around in the dark." suggested Jou as he sounded pretty tired.  
"I'm tired…" Mimi dropped to her knees. Understandable, she had been resting comfortably in a castle for the past couple of weeks and wasn't back to her full traveling strength yet.  
"But she should be around here." insisted Yamato. Another quick look of our Digivices showed that we were almost on top of Sora. Patamon suddenly made a noise.  
"What's wrong?" Takeru asked.  
"I can hear something."  
"Maybe it's Sora-san!"

We all became quite and listened. The sounds of the local ambience like bugs and the like could be heard before we heard a strange buzzing noise. Our answered burst through the trees in the form of a fairly large bee.  
"It's Flymon!" Koromon informed. He turned back around and started to launch stingers at us forcing us to move for cover. Koushiro opened up his laptop as he took refuge behind a tree.  
"I can bring up his stats by using the Digimon Analyzer that Gennai-san sent me. Here it is!" We gathered by him to see the screen. "Flymon. An Insect Digimon. Adult Level. He's a virus type." Virus type? Is that something like Pocket Monsters with type advantages, like the rock, paper, scissors advantage with Fire, Water, and Grass? "His special attack, Deadly Sting, sprays poison stingers. Poison stingers?!" We ran as the bug fired another stinger that hit a tree. If we hadn't move, it would've impaled Koushiro. The bee launched more stingers that just kept barely missing us; if we don't do something quick, someone's gonna get killed by one of those.  
"Taichi!" "Yamato!" "Ross!" Our respective Digimon called out. "Koromon, evolve! AGUMON!" "Tsunomon, evolve! GABUMON!" "Gigimon, evolve! GUILMON!"  
"Agumon!" "Gabumon!" "Guilmon!" We said to them as they launched a counter-attack.  
"Baby Flame!" "Petit Fire!" "Fireball!" Flymon moved so fast that he simply dodged all three of the attacks.  
"Oh no! Flymon is too fast!" Mochimon feared.  
"Marching Fishes!" "Poison Ivy!" Both Palmon and Gomamon tried their own attack but were unsuccessful. Flymon just merely avoided them and turned to launch more of his stingers.

All of a sudden, a powerful roar filled the skies in the form of Birdramon flying above the jungle canopy towards our position. Looks like Sora was still helping out, even if she wouldn't make an appearance.  
"It's Birdramon!" Mochimon shouted.  
"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon released her wave of fiery projectiles that ended up roasting the bee completely and sending what's left of him to burn on the jungle floor.  
"Since Birdramon is here… Sora!" I ran directly after Birdramon.  
"Move it!" Ross ordered.  
"Taichi, wait for me!" I heard Agumon cry from behind.  
"Me too!" Gabumon said so that meant both him and Yamato were following along.  
"I'm coming too!" Takeru insisted.  
"Takeru, don't leave me behind!" Patamon panicked.

After a few minutes of running towards a creek, I thought I caught a glimpse of Sora.  
"Wait, Sora!" I called. I had a feeling I wasn't going to keep up with her following her the same way so I cut through some bushes and lo and behold, it payed off because I hopped out right in front of Sora's path. "Sora!" I panted out of breath. She quickly tried to turn around but found her path blocked by Ross who was right behind her.  
"Sorry, Sora… out of time." He said. Must have said the same thing last night or something. Yamato then soon caught up with the three of us.  
"Why are you running away?" Yamato asked. Ross said it was something about being alone with her thoughts or something, but who really knows but her.  
"Explain yourself, Sora!" I demanded… well, lightly demanded. She did nothing but looked down to the ground with a sad look on her face as Takeru and the rest of our Digimon now arrived.  
"Sora…" Yamato muttered.

"Sora-san, do you… hate us now?" Takeru asked.  
"No…" She shook her head. "That's not it…" Piyomon dropped from the trees to land right next to her.  
"Sora. Why don't you tell them?" Sora sighed before she started to speak again.  
"When Piyomon and I… left that night to look for Taichi and Ross… I… I saw them. I saw PicoDevimon talking to someone."  
"What were they talking about?" Takeru asked once more.  
"Our Crests."  
"Our Crests?" I questioned.  
"Yes. Each of our Crests has a different meaning. For example, you have the Crest of Courage, Taichi."  
"Crest of Courage?" Me, courageous? Well, there was the time where I gathered my courage to get through that electrical fence to save Sora that day, and the charging towards Etemon was also pretty courageous, I think. "I see. So that's why my Crest glowed back then!"

"Yamato-kun, yours is the Crest of Friendship."  
"Friendship."  
"How about me, Sora?" Ross asked.  
"Yours fits you pretty well. You possess the Crest of Honor, Ross."  
"Honor?" Well, I guess honoring promises and preforming some honorable actions like charging to certain doom to save others is about as honorable as it gets. Fits for a guy who wants to be a Marine.  
"Than what about mine?" Takeru questioned.  
"Yours is the Crest of Hope."  
"The Crest of Hope!" The young boy looked towards Patamon.  
"Koushiro-kun has the Crest of Knowledge." Ha, no real surprised there. "Jou-senpai has the Crest of Sincerity." Well, the guy is pretty sincere about his words and actions so I guess that's a fit for him. "Mimi-chan has the Crest of Purity." Well, her actions before weren't pure but after last night, she's put a stop to much of her selfishness. "And mine is…" She hesitated for a moment. "The Crest of Love."

"Love fits you perfectly, Sora." I complemented. Her reaction was not something any of us expected.  
"No it doesn't!" She shouted at me. "It doesn't fit me at all!"  
"B-But… You always think about the others and…"  
"I don't care about the others! You don't… You don't know what I'm really like, so stop talking as if you do!" Woah. There are some things she is really airing out. The angry look on her face quickly vanished into one of shame. "I'm sorry."  
"Wh-What's wrong?"  
"My Crest… It won't glow. Because I don't have any love." She quickly sat down next to the tree and buried her face in her legs.  
"What do you mean, you don't have any love?" Takeru was confused about that, as well as the rest of us.  
"I don't understand this at all! Man, girls are so much trouble." I kid.  
"You won't be saying that in a few years, I guarantee that, Taichi." Ross joked.  
"Don't make fun of her, you two." Yamato told us. Ross put his hands up as if he was innocent or saying 'I wasn't making fun of her, I was making fun of him.'  
"I'm just kidding!" I defended.

"PicoDevimon told me." She put her head back up again. "He caught us after he finished his conversation with this mysterious master of his. He said he pitied me. That I was raised without knowing any real love. That it was beyond question that my Crest will never glow."  
"Don't be stupid!" I told her. "PicoDevimon was obviously lying!"  
"Yeah, why for a second would you believe a word that rat said?" added Ross.  
"No…" Sora muttered. "He wasn't lying." Huh? "It happened… back when I was on the girls' soccer team…" Oh no. I know what she talking about now.

Sora's home life… is complicated to say the least. Her father, Haruhiko Takenouchi, is almost never around. The man is a university professor at one of the universities in Tokyo in the field of anthropology; with his research into finding facts about animal spirts. He travels all around Japan and sometimes out of the country for it as well as speaking at universities. In fact, I think he's up north in Sapporo at this very moment, or at least, on August 1st according to Sora two weeks ago. His wife, Toshiko, whom he met while in Kyoto and later married, is well, the cause of Sora's feelings. Her mother is a teacher of Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging; actually she's a Grand Master and the next in a long line of flower arranging Grand Masters in her family. And well, she has hopes for Sora to continue that line, much to Sora's resentment. Ross has an idea, and I'm inclined to agree with it; is that Sora's tomboyish attitude stems as a form of rebellion to her mother.

"I was their ace striker." Sora continued her story. "Our team had a really big game that day and that I need to go. My mom complained that I needed to lower my voice or the flowers would wilt. I tried to tell her the importance of the game but she just pointed out the injury to my leg. It wasn't that bad, okay, bandages were still on it, but it was fine! It was nothing! She then said she wanted me to quit soccer. Something about not learning to sit gracefully on my heels or something. That wasn't happening. I care more about soccer than some stupid flowers. And she's the biggest hypocrite in the world; she played tennis in high school! She then questioned how I could be her daughter, which I yelled at her 'Why can't you understand?!' before I ran off.  
"Sora, your house is famous for traditional flower arrangement, isn't it?" I reminded more to quickly inform Yamato, Takeru and the Digimon about what was going on with Sora's home life.  
"Yeah. My family is _ie-moto_."  
"What's an _'ie-moto'_?" Takeru asked.  
"It means her mother is a master who teaches flower arranging." Ross said.  
"In the end, we lost horribly from that game. I couldn't stay in that club anymore. My mom doesn't see me as anything beyond the daughter of a flower arrangement school! She thinks our reputation as an _ie-moto_ is more important that I am! That's the kind of woman she is!"

"So. Even if I am raised without love, there's nothing I can do about that!" She yelled as she got up and looked like she was planning on throwing the Crest in her hand.  
"Stop it, Sora!" I quickly grabbed her arm.  
"Let go of me!"  
"Weather that's true or not, you can't believe in what PicoDevimon said!" Tears began to fill in Sora's eyes before she just broke down and cried. "Hey, don't cry! Hey, Ross, Yamato… What should I do?"  
"Be a shoulder for her to cry on." Ross told me. What? Well, okay. I walked up to Sora and patted her on the back. She suddenly grabbed me and buried herself in my shoulder.  
"How did you know?" Yamato asked.  
"Mimi-kun did the same thing to me last night. If Sora wants to cry, then let her get it all out."  
"Ross is really mature." Agumon claimed.  
"More than Taichi, that's for sure." Gabumon said. Hey!  
"I think that stems more from his father; sounds like some sort of advice he gave at some time." Guilmon theorized. Well, that's true, Ross always does claim the things he knows about girls comes from his dad.

"Sora-san…" Takeru walked up and tugged on her shirt. "Thank you." Sora stopped her crying when she heard that. "You're the one who told us not to eat the mushrooms, right?"  
"We knew PicoDevimon was plotting something so we followed him secretly." Piyomon explained. "Also when Yamato and Jou were working in Digitamamon's restaurant… we replaced a brick with those potatoes that were outside that PicoDevimon tried to sabotage."  
"I didn't know." Yamato said.  
"You didn't have to hide from us." I told her.  
"Sora wanted to be alone." Piyomon informed.  
"See? I was right." Ross looked pretty proud as he said that.  
"But…" Piyomon spoke up again. "She couldn't just leave the rest of you completely. Understand her, okay?" We all nodded.  
"I really like you, Sora-san." Takeru admitted. "So don't leave anymore, okay? I don't like it when my family… I mean, when everyone becomes separated." I think he slipped with his words, but it's kinda nice to think our gang is one large dysfunctional family.  
"Takeru-kun…" Sora had tears in her eyes again. "Okay, I won't." She wiped them away. "I'm sorry."  
"Hey!" We heard Jou call out as the rest of the gang finally rejoined us.  
"Hey! What took you so long?" I questioned.  
"Jou-senpai took his time after falling into the river." Mimi said to Jou's embarrassment.  
"Mimi-kun, you kept sitting down and complaining about how tired and hungry you were!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

While the children had reunited with each other, they were unaware that their movements were being watched by PicoDevimon.  
"They're all here. I must inform Vamdemon-sama of this right away." He quickly flew away from the group and made contact with his dark master. Back at the castle, a stone gate opened up revealing a large black dragon with four glowing red eyes pulling a stagecoach behind it. A strange red and white cloaked creature was the driver of the carriage as it flew across the night sky. Vamdemon was about to make his terrifying appearance to the children.

At the same time, the children had all fallen asleep around the campfire they had set up. The fact that they didn't have anyone on watch made them sadly easy targets for the nearby PicoDevimon.  
"They're all sleeping deeply." He pulled out a very large version of one his Pico Darts. "I'll pick off a few of them before Vamdemon-sama arrives." Thankfully, Piyomon's good hearing helped again as she woke up just in time to see the small bat. "Pico Darts!"  
"Sora, look out!" She placed her body in front of Sora's and took the large syringe into her side.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

I was quickly woken up by Piyomon, only to find she had been stabbed by a very large syringe!  
"Piyomon!" I cried, pulling the syringe out of her. "Piyomon! Hang in there! Piyomon!"  
"Sora… I'll protect you…" She moaned in pain.  
"Piyomon!"  
"What? What's wrong?" Taichi asked as he woke up.  
"It's PicoDevimon!" Takeru shouted. The bat panicked and quickly fled the scene. As soon as he left, the full moon in the sky was starting to be blocked by a very thick black cloud. The whole area turned black with the only light being our campfire. A moment later, the sky cleared, revealing the moon had turned blood red and a large creature carrying a stagecoach was flying in our direction.

"Wha… What's that?" stuttered Taichi. The back of the stagecoach opened up and a shiny coffin fell out from it. It then burst opened to reveal a dark creature concealed in a black cape who landed on the ground about a good five hundred meters ahead of us.  
"Chosen Children." The being spoke in a very sinister voice, one that I suddenly remembered.  
"That's him!" I pointed. "He's the guy PicoDevimon was talking to!"  
"Don't call him by such rude terms!" PicoDevimon was quick to defend his dark master. "This is Vamdemon-sama!"  
"Vamdemon?" Taichi questioned.  
"Vamdemon- _sama_!" The said Digimon just laughed.  
"Your journey ends here. Night Raid!" He opened up his cape to reveal he was a large vampire and a swarm of dark bats were summoned from his cape that was revealed to be blood red on the inside. The bats flew right towards us but our Digimon wasn't going to let those bats harm us.  
"Let's go, guys!" Agumon ordered.  
"Baby Flame!" "Petit Fire!" "Fireball!" "Mochimon, evolve! TENTOMON!" "Petit Thunder!" "Air Shot!" The attacks provided a wall of protective fire but the bats refused to let up their attack.

"They just keep coming!" Koushiro yelled. A few of them got through and started to poke at Mimi and Jou.  
"Mimi!" Palmon called out. "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON! Everyone, get down! Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" Togemon's wave of needles flew out and struck down many of the evil bats.  
"Now! Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON! Harpoon Vulcan!" The missiles that he launched flew directly towards the vampire who did nothing but take them head on.  
"You got him!" Jou cheered.  
"Way too early to celebrate, Jou-san." Ross reminded. Out of the smoke came an unscathed Vamdemon flying in the air.  
"You'd be right." He taunted. "Bloody Stream!" A red whip of energy appeared in his hands and struck both Togemon and Ikkakumon down. He then proceeded to wipe out the other Digimon all the while laughing maniacally.  
"Taichi… He's… strong…" Agumon uttered.  
"No way!" Taichi panicked. We were in deep trouble now.

"I have to go…" Piyomon muttered in my arms. "I'm the only one left…" What? She's barely awake!  
"You can't! How do you plan on attacking him with your wounds?"  
"Please understand, Sora… I have to go!" She started to struggle in my arms as she tried to get away from me.  
"You can't!"  
"Let go!"  
"No! You can't go!"  
"Why can't you understand?!" What? Did she say…?  
" _Why can't you understand?!"_ Those were the exact same words I said to my mother the day of the big game. Mom! Oh, I'm such a fool! She was really… She was really thinking about me first… Piyomon used my distracted attention to get away from my arms.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!"

Birdramon flew directly towards the vampire Digimon and attacked with little success.  
"Meteor Wing!"  
"Bloody Steam!" His attack hit her square in her chest.  
"Birdramon!" I screamed as I ran towards her. My heart was breaking to see her fall, and probably will be destroyed by that evil monster. Only now do I realize…

That I have love in my life!

"BIRDRAMON!" To my utter shock, my Crest finally glowed and my Digivice turned red with orange buttons which shot out a light that hit my Crest and went towards Birdramon.  
"Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!" Garudamon was a giant beast-man, or woman in her case, creature that looked somewhat Native American in nature. She possessed a metal mask over her head and two titanic wings.  
"Wh-What is that light?" Vamdemon shouted. Garudamon turned around and picked me up in her large hands.  
"Sora, your love…" She said. "I felt so much of it!" I almost had to cry.  
"Piyomon… You look so cool!"  
"Damn it!" Vamdemon cursed. "The Crest of Love just _had_ to activate at the most crucial moment!"  
"I will protect Sora!" declared the large bird woman. She flew high in the sky while keeping a strong hold on me. "Shadow Wing!" Her wings burned with fire before they launched an attack in the shape of a phoenix towards the evil vampire.  
"Night Raid!" He used his bats as a shield to hold back the attack which caused a bright blinding light.  
"Come, let's run while we still can!" Garudamon said to the others as she picked them up as well and used the blinding light as a distraction to escape. We escaped past the mountains as the sun began to rise over them.

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+98. Early Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

We thankfully managed to escape from the terrible clutches of Vamdemon, and thank God Almighty for that eleventh-hour evolution because we really were up a creek at that moment. We all managed to relax by a nearby stream, far from the mountains where Vamdemon came from.  
"See?" Taichi spoke. "There was nothing to worry about. Your Crest glowed after all."  
"Before I know what I was doing… I was acting just like my mom."  
"Sora…" Pyocomon said.  
"That's when I understood… My mom loved me all along." We all have our sort of problems with our folks and we feel like they just like to make our lives miserable, but they do truly care for us. Maybe now, if we get back home, things will be better between Sora and her mother.  
"I felt it too! I felt your love!"  
"I'm sorry about before."  
"I'm glad you're back to your usual self!"

"I want Sora's love too." Taichi joked I think? Or did he just admit he has a crush on her?  
"Taichi, you dummy! What do you think you're saying?!" questioned Jou.  
"Huh? Jou-san, your face is red." Takeru pointed out.  
"Jou-senpai!" Mimi walked up next to him with something in her hand. "Shall I give you my love?" What!? "Here you go." She filled his hands with acorns. Wait; was that a reference to Peter Pan?  
"Mimi-kun… you know…" Jou just moaned making us all laugh. Our laughing stopped when we heard an ominous sound and turned to see a familiar dark cloud floating in the sky before hearing a terrifying laugh.  
"That voice!" Sora shouted.  
"Chosen Children. With only the power of eight, you cannot thwart the might of our evil powers." Vamdemon threatened, even if he wasn't actually here in person. What exactly did he mean by 'only the power of eight'?

The next few days, we'd get that answer, and things will really get kicked up a notch…

* * *

And that was Chapter 27.

Okay, now that you know Ross' Crest, here's where it is so you know what it looks like. Go to Imgur and after the backslash behind .com, type in NWYB9II (Those are I's, not 1's) The Crest was designed by HetalianNation on DeviantArt that I asked for permission and he gave it. It can also be found on DeviantArt under his profile with the picture labeled Digimon Crests and it's the first one in the second row.

Anyways, this is the last chapter for you to listen to the song _'I wish!',_ the next one will be _'Keep on!'_.

Take care everyone, I'll see you on the 30th.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	29. Vamdemon! The Castle of Darkness!

Chapter 28 folks. Sorry for the delay. I really wanted to upload the next chapter on Odaiba Day but I upload these things the moment when I finish them so, yeah, missing that special day.

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for the review. Yeah, the Crest of Honor was something I was always shooting for once I decide what Ross' Crest was. It was actually a close race with the Crest of Justice or Valor, but Honor won out. And yeah, Sora has had some rough times at her home, but I get a feeling that's gonna change soon. ;)

Anyways, on with the show.

* * *

 **Chapter 28: Vamdemon! The Castle of Darkness!**

 _Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+98. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After Vamdemon's threat had been made, we decided to quickly stack up for supplies because we were going to be on the run once again. The reason why Vamdemon probably didn't come after us was the fact that he behaved like an actual vampire, and could not really function in the sun. That's actually kinda funny because the whole vampires hate sunlight came from the German Expressionist Horror film _**Nosferatu**_ in 1922; while in the 1897 novel, _Bram Stoker's Dracula_ , the infamous Count could walk in the sun with little ill effects.

At the moment, Taichi, Jou, and myself were in the creek getting some freshwater in some bags that we could carry along with us. Mimi and Palmon were near us sitting on some rocks.  
"These bags are useful, aren't they? I swiped them from the restaurant." Jou explained. Gomamon swam up to him.  
"I thought your diligence was all you had going for you, but I see even you make some nice moves, Jou!"  
"Well, yeah. Mimi-kun, cheer up."  
"But now that Vamdemon's appeared, we'll have to keep running from him like we did with Etemon, right?"  
"Well, that's true…" Jou looked back to the both of us.  
"What? That's only for the time being." Taichi said.  
"We'll take him down sooner or later." Palmon assured.  
"Besides, we've got five Digimon that can go Perfect-Level now." I informed.  
"Yeah, just make me MegaloGrowmon, and I'll bury Fang-Face in his coffin, permanently." boasted Guilmon.  
"That's the spirit!" Taichi cheered.  
"Taichi-san!" Koushiro called out.  
"What's up? Are you guys finished preparing the food?" Koushiro ran up almost out of breath.  
"It's not that! Gennai-san is here!"  
"Gennai?" We all questioned. Was he hear physically or one of his holographic projectors?

It was the projector once more. We all gather around him, to listen to what he had to tell us this time.  
"Hey, Gramps! What is it this time?" Taichi asked.  
"I have both good news and bad news, so which would you like to hear first?"  
"I'd like to say leave the good news for last, but…" Jou trailed off.  
"We'll end up disappointed either way, so let's here the good news first." Yamato decided.  
"Okay. Then I'll start with the good news. The truth is, I've found you a new comrade."  
"A comrade? You mean a Chosen Child?" Sora inquired.  
"Yes. There are actually supposed to be nine Chosen Children altogether."  
"Eh?!" We were all surprised by that piece of news. Really? There was someone we were missing?  
"Hey, so does that mean there's another Digimon who's on our side?" Pyocomon questioned, more towards Sora.  
"Yeah, it would." So that must be what Vamdemon said about the whole 'only power of eight'.  
"What's important to know is that if the nine of you aren't together, the distortions in this world won't be straightened out. That also includes the distortions in your world. Understand what I mean?"  
"Of course." nodded Taichi.  
"I wonder what that person is like." Takeru seemed excited to meet this new compatriot.  
"I hope I can meet our new friend soon!" Mimi joined in.

"So? Where is this guy? What's the name?" Taichi asked once more.  
"The name is… Well… um… I don't know." We all groaned in utter disbelief.  
"Come on, old man!" I shouted.  
"I'm sorry. But I do know where the child is located. In Japan."  
"Eh?!" We all were surprised once more.  
"Japan?" Taichi questioned.  
"Where is that?" Gabumon inquired.  
"It's in the world where Taichi and the others came from." Agumon explained.  
"Oh yeah. You and Guilmon went there once, Agumon." Koushiro recalled our story. Both traveling Digimon nodded.  
"But now that means we can't meet that person." Jou believed. Mimi just made a depressed 'aw' sound.  
"Don't be so disappointed." Gennai spoke up.

"Wait… What's the bad news?" Taichi reminded. Oh yeah, there was some bad news as well.  
"Uh, Vamdemon already knows the information that I've just told you about. He's in the midst of gathering an army to invade Japan and kill the child." Our eyes widened.  
"Vamdemon is going to Japan!?"  
"But that would mean…!" Sora couldn't finish her sentence.  
"Vamdemon will cause utter devastation!" Yamato finished.  
"And lots of people will be caught in the crossfire…" I added.  
"We've got to stop him!" Jou declared. We all quickly nodded.  
"Gennai-san, how do we do that? How exactly does he plan to go to Japan?" Koushiro asked.  
"I'll explain that to you later when you get to Vamdemon's castle. It's not too far from here, but you need to hurry! Vamdemon, I believe, is almost through with his preparations!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Deep in the mountains, at the front gate of Vamdemon's fortress laid a sign that read 'Recruiting Soldiers' in kanji. The soldiers that showed up were… not exactly army material, much less a force of terror that Vamdemon planned to use in his crusade to find and kill the ninth Chosen Child. Then again, what would one expect when the army or rather in this case, squad, is organized by PicoDevimon? The force comprised of a Sukamon and Chuumon, several Vegimon and Numemon also filled out the ranks of the squad. They all were out in the front courtyard of the castle and assembled in front of PicoDevimon. The bat merely sighed in what was yet another of his failures.

"They all look like worthless bums." He said aloud.  
"Nothing to worry about! I'll whip them into shape!" A Digimon said behind him. To describe this Digimon, was hard. He looked completely human, except for the fact that he was basically just a head with two arms and two legs ripped from weight lifting, bald on most of his head except the sides, had a beard and wore a pair of sunglasses. This was Nanimon. Translated his name actually was 'What is this 'mon''. This Adult-Level Digimon's identity was unknown but he had the special nickname of 'The old man' and his attack was the same as the Numemon and Sukamon.  
"I'm counting on you." PicoDevimon said. "Only a sensei with years of military experience like yours is fit for this job."  
"You got it!"  
"Well, they're all yours." PicoDevimon proceeded to walk back into the castle.

"Yay!" Two Digimon said at the entrance. The squad turned around to see that standing at the gate was Agumon in a blonde afro and Palmon in a Rastafari wig.  
"Hey, is it true you're looking for soldiers?" Palmon questioned.  
"Can we join?" Agumon asked.  
"Who are you guys?" inquired Nanimon.  
"I'm PunkAgumon!"  
"I'm ReggaePalmon!" Nanimon looked back at the other Digimon.  
"They might be better than these dorks. Okay, come on over!"  
"Yay! Yay!"

At the same time, deep in the castle, Vamdemon was quietly sitting at a desk, only illuminated by a single candle. He was deep into reading a book that was key to his overall plans when a knock came at the room's doors.  
"Enter." The doors opened up to reveal PicoDevimon.  
"Reporting in, Vamdemon-sama. Potential soldiers are streaming in from everywhere."  
"Will they be useful?"  
"P-Probably." The bat hesitated before a female voice laughed.  
"Those so called soldiers of yours look like small potatoes to me." The voice said.  
"Wh-Who's there?" PicoDevimon demanded. The answer walked up right behind him in the form of a white cat. She had bright blue eyes, purple tipped ears, wore clawed gloves, and had a long tail that was a white and purple spiraled tail with a gold ring on it. This Adult-Level kitty was known as Tailmon.  
"Are you thinking of making a second-string army with a ratty bunch like that?"  
"If I just had a chance, I'd…!"  
"What? Want to fight?"

"Quit it." Vamdemon ordered as he stood up at his desk. "More importantly, Tailmon, have you found anyone useful?"  
"Yes, sir. Just as you've ordered, I've searched everywhere and scouted a large number of valiant men who are willing to join us."  
"I look forward to seeing how impressive they are."  
"Sir." PicoDevimon was livid, here was this kitty cat stealing his place as his master's right hand. The tension was broken when a Bakemon flew through the bookcase into the room.  
"Excuse me for interrupting, Vamdemon-sama."  
"What is it?"  
"The stone room is ready for your inspection." The vampire turned his attention to the two small Digimon.  
"You two can go."  
"Sir." They said as they walked away. Vamdemon walked up to the bookcase and fiddle with some sort of attraction before the bookcase opened up to reveal a stone stair case. It led to a giant chamber with a huge steel door and a small stone pedestal at the center of the room that a bunch of Bakemon were cleaning rapidly.  
"Vamdemon-sama. What is this, if I may ask?" The Bakemon questioned.  
"This is the door to other worlds. Word of its existence has been passed along since ancient times. We will use the Gate to invade the human world!"

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

We quickly arrived outside of Vamdemon's castle and hid out of sight as Agumon and Palmon were sent in to find us a way into the castle without being found. We were currently talking with Gennai who was explaining more about Vamdemon's plans of how he planned to go to Japan and try to harm the ninth Child.

"And so, the Gate that connects to Japan should be somewhere inside this castle. Then, the reason why Vamdemon left PicoDevimon to deal with us was because he was busy making preparations to open the Gate." Koushiro assumed.  
"That's right."  
"But man, what are Agumon and Palmon doing? They disguised themselves to enlist in the army and help us sneak in, but they haven't shown themselves at all yet." Taichi began to worry.  
"Relax, give them some more time." Yamato assured.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The reason for the holdup was the fact that they were being put through quite the vigorous training regimen. Nanimon had the group doing a multitude of push-ups.  
"Okay, next! Hop like bunnies!" The Digimon did as they were ordered by their drill sergeant. "Listen up! Stretch those earholes wide open and listen good! No one but the toughest will survive on the battlefield! If you don't wanna die, then shut your traps and keep going!"  
"Keep going?" A Numemon complained. "They haven't even fed us anything yet! I can't take much more!"  
"Hey! No chit-chatting over there! As punishment, you're skipping dinner tonight!"  
"No way!" A Numemon suddenly stopped and forced the entire group to collapse on each other. "I enlisted in the first place 'cause I heard I could eat my fill every night!"  
"This sucks!" The other Numemon said.

A few minutes later, two of the Vegimon were giving Nanimon a massage with his arms while the other squad members were exhausted.  
"If this keeps up, we won't have a chance to sneak everyone inside." worried Palmon.  
"We have to do something about Nanimon." Agumon said.  
"I used to be in the same squad as he was once." Sukamon told the group.  
"What?"  
"Even back then, he threw his weight around, but whenever it was time for real battle, he'd get wasted from drinking too much sake and end up doing nothing at all."  
"We should make him drink sake until he gets drunk!" suggested Chuumon.  
"He's a heavy drinker, huh?" Palmon concluded.  
"That just might work!" Agumon agreed with the plan. "We'll force sake on him and make him drink himself to sleep!"  
"Good thinking!" "Nice idea!" Sukamon and Chuumon praised.  
"But the two of us will stick out like sore thumbs if we tried to slip away…"  
"You're right." Palmon nodded.

"Just leave it to us then!" The Numemon informed them. "There are plenty of us here so he can't tell if one of us is missing."  
"Can you do it?" Palmon asked.  
"Of course. We're pissed off for not getting any grub! Here I go." He ran off and snuck by Nanimon before sliding on the wall into a window where one of the storerooms were.  
"All right! Now it's time to make a pyramid!" Nanimon ordered.  
"Yay!" The group cheered, keeping up the façade.

"Here it is!" The Numemon who snuck into the storeroom found a bunch of bottles of sake. "Just you watch! The grudge of food is deep and terrifying!"  
"Hey, hey! You pipsqueaks shouldn't get exhausted from this! You're not allowed to lose focus yet!" The whole pyramid had collapsed completely which Nanimon was going to yell some more until he saw the bottles of sake floating down on small parachutes. "What's this?" He grabbed a bottle. "It's… It's sake!" He popped the bottle open and began to chug the whole thing down. More bottles kept floating down and he just kept guzzling every single bottle that was sent his way. "There's so much sake! Delicious! Delicious… Delicious…" He started to turn red as he was beyond drunk… actually so much; it was amazing his liver was still intact. He just laughed when there were no more bottles and started to do some weird movements. "Oh no! My body's moving all on its own…"  
"Go! Go! Go! Go!" The others cheered him.  
"I feel great!" He passed out in less than a second.  
"All right!" The gang exclaimed.  
"The plan worked!" Agumon said.  
"Now, let's go!" Palmon reminded him of the main plan.  
"Yeah." They ran off into the castle.

Meanwhile, deeper inside, Vamdemon had several cards in front of him that he was studying closely.  
"The key is within my grasp." He said to himself. "After understanding the meaning hidden within these cards, they must be placed in the appropriate order. Then the door to the other worlds will open." He evilly chuckled. "Chosen Children. No matter how hard you struggle, it is already too late."

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

Everyone was a bit on edge due to the delay to Palmon and Agumon. Nobody really wanted to perform the backup plan of knocking down the walls to save them and stop Vamdemon. We really wanted to catch him off guard.

"Are they here yet?" Taichi asked for what felt like the tenth time.  
"Be patient." Jou reminded. Soon, vines fell out of a nearby window, Palmon and Agumon had gotten in!  
"Palmon!" Mimi cried.  
"Sorry for the wait!" Palmon apologized.  
"All right!" Taichi exclaimed as we ran towards the vines to be carried up.  
"I can't be able to contact you inside the castle, so you're on your own." Gennai told us.  
"You can count on us!"  
"Okay, Palmon! First group going up!" Ross gave the signal and we slowly began to be pulled up two by two, or in a few cases, some of us could fly or be carried up to the window.  
"Remember, stop Vamdemon's plans and protect your comrade in Japan!" Gennai gave us some final words before his transmission ended.

Once we got up, we split up into different groups to try to find a path in this confusing place. Many of the paths either turned us around or led us to dead ends. It is all so confusing. I stood as close to Onii-chan as I could.  
"Huh?" Patamon seemed confused.  
"What's wrong?" I asked.  
"Something's weird."  
"What is?" We walked up to a hall torch that was upside down but still burning. It took a moment to realize that we were upside down!  
"Why!?" We shouted.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

We came across a locked door that I'm sure is something important. Why else would the door be locked?  
"How is it?" Gomamon asked.  
"It's very sturdy. That must mean this is a very important room." I explained my reasoning.  
"But doesn't this lock look rusty to you?" Mimi pointed out. Yeah, but…  
"Yes!" Sora answered. "Maybe this room just hasn't been used in a long time." I stopped fiddling with the lock when she said that.  
"Let's look somewhere else." Pyocomon suggested.  
"Okay." The girls walked off.  
"Let's go, Jou." Gomamon said.  
"I was so sure this was the place…" I sighed in defeat as I followed along.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"I think we're lost…" I spoke up as we walked on a bridge way.  
"No way…" Agumon concerned.  
"I feel like we've passed through here before."  
"Great, we're going in circles." Guilmon complained.  
"I wonder if the others are having bad luck." Ross said.  
"Taichi-san! Ross-san!" We heard Koushiro's voice under the bridge.  
"Koushiro? You guys were searching below us?" I called out.  
"That's an odd thing to say." Tentomon responded. "You two are the ones who are below us."  
"No, it's you guys who are below us!" Agumon claimed.  
"No, you are!" Koushiro insisted.  
"Wait a minute?" Ross questioned. We looked over to see Koushiro staring up at us from below us, and it probably was vice-versa.  
"Eh?!" We all shouted. Great, this place was designed by M.C. Escher!

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"The time is at hand." declared Vamdemon. "Get ready for departure. Gather all of the soldiers to the stone room!" He ordered Tailmon and PicoDevimon.  
"Yes, sir!" They left and followed their orders.  
"I've made many preparations to open the Gate for the sake of my goals… but to think they will be useful now. First comes the ninth Chosen Child. Your dead body will act as the foundation for my ambitions!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Somehow, we manage to all regroup with each other, but we were still no closer to finding the Gate and stopping Vamdemon.  
"This castle is very strange." Koushiro stated the obvious. "The airspace in here must be distorted and warped."  
"This isn't the first time we've seen this world acting weird." Taichi pointed out.  
"But this place is particularly weirder than the rest." Yamato insisted. "Maybe it's because Vamdemon's power is strong."  
"You're right. This is all clearly part of the castle's defenses. Keep intruders like us lost until dealt with." I said.  
"Don't say that…" worried Jou.  
"Huh?" Gomamon questioned as he must have heard a sound.  
"What's wrong?"  
"Someone's coming!" We heard the sounds of what sounded like many voices walking through the halls and walkways. We took cover before popping our heads to spot the source of the sounds.

What we saw was quite intimidating. We had just found Vamdemon's army and it was quite the army. There were some Digimon we didn't really recognize, but most of the army seemed to be comprised of ghosts.  
"Those ghosts are Bakemon, right?" I questioned Sora and Jou.  
"There must be over a hundred or more of them." He said.  
"That's an army…" Koushiro trailed off.  
"They're getting ready to leave." Yamato guessed.  
"Then let's follow them!" Sora suggested.  
"Exactly! Let's go!" Taichi said. We all followed his lead and it seemed we were now able to finally find the way to the Gate. The only problem was that time was clearly short.

"Listen closely!" We soon heard Vamdemon's voice echoing in the halls as it sounded like he was giving a speech to his minions. Looks like we were getting close. "Your target is the ninth Chosen Child! Find him, and kill him! Envelope everything in darkness and the powers of evil!" The response was expected, nothing but cheers. "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius!" Then we heard some strange noises before the sound of a large metal door opening. Crap! The Gate is opening! We need to stop him now! We picked up our speed as best as we could.  
"Everyone to the front line!" A female voice called out. By the time we got to the main chamber by running down the stairs, it looked like the whole army had gone through and Vamdemon himself was walking over to his stagecoach.  
"Hold it!" Taichi yelled out. "You won't get away with this!"  
"You're finally here. But it's too late." The vampire taunted. "Look well upon this historic moment!"  
"Cut the crap!"  
"Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to concern myself with you. PicoDevimon."  
"Sir!"  
"Silence them." He climbed into his coach.  
"Understood!"

"Wait!" Taichi cried out only for our path to be blocked by PicoDevimon and the Digimon that Agumon and Palmon were training with; in short, a very, very weak rear guard. "Think you can still win after all the times you've lost?" Taichi questioned the bat.  
"It won't be like last time! Go get 'em, Sensei!"  
"You got it!" The Digimon we were told was named Nanimon walked up. "I won't let you pass!"  
"Don't get in our way!" Agumon shouted as Vamdemon vanished in the light of the doorway. Damn it all! We couldn't stop him, but at least we could follow and engage him back home.  
"Men! Get them!" The other Digimon didn't seem to enthusiastic about fighting us.  
"I didn't want to fight you guys, but we're running out of time!"  
"Forgive us, okay?" Palmon apologized ahead of time.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" Two large Adult-Level Digimon standing in front of them made the blocking Digimon back up, but we weren't done. "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!" Now six large Adult-Level Digimon was facing down the rear guard. It didn't last a second as they fled in fear.

"H-Hey! You guys!" Nanimon tried to rally the fleeing Digimon but to no avail. "Turing tail in front of the enemy is a felony!" More like desertion is a capital offence punishable by death but who knows what the law really is in this place.  
"Who cares, you didn't even feed us!" A Numemon claimed. "We'd rather make a quiet, decent living then die for this!" They all ran up the stairs leaving only Nanimon in our way.  
"H-Hey…!" He looked at us for a moment before pulling out a white flag. "Surrender! I surrender!"  
"Sensei, you can't do that!" PicoDevimon argued.  
"Shut up! It's true that no one but the toughest can survive on the battlefield… But you won't survive if being tough is all you've got! Running away from a fight is also considered winning! Right?"  
"Just go home!" Taichi told him.  
"Excuse the intrusion!" He fled but not before leaving a pink gift on PicoDevimon's head. Ew.  
"Now, what are you going to do?" Yamato asked the Bat Digimon.  
"Th-This isn't fair! It's six against one!"  
"Hey, let's get rid of this guy and go already." Takeru said. Wait, he is saying to eliminate PicoDevimon or am I reading too much into that?  
"I-I can't believe the day has come when you'd say that! Damn it! I've hit rock-bottom! Pico Darts!" He threw out a desperate attack, but Patamon was ahead of him on that.  
"Air Shot!" He blew away the syringes on the floor in front of the lying Digimon.

"The Gate is closing!" Sora alerted.  
"Playtime is over! Let's go!" Taichi ordered as we all charged straight towards the door.  
"Move!" A small white cat jumped in front of PicoDevimon. "Honestly… I can't stand watching this anymore."  
"Another small one showed up. Shoo shoo, out of the way. You don't want to get hurt, do you?" shooed Jou.  
"Yeah, go home kitty-cat. Play with some yarn or something." I added. That may have been a mistake.  
"I see you're underestimating me. Watch this." She jumped high in the air. "Neko Kick!" Neko is cat in Japanese. She kicked Greymon, Kabuterimon, Growmon and Ikkakumon all in the face in rapid succession and knocked them down.  
"She's much stronger then she looks!" Yamato shouted.  
"Here's my punch!" Togemon walked up and threw a punch but it was dodged and the cat started to fight off both Togemon and Garurumon.

"Now!" Taichi said as we ran around the fight to get to the Gate.  
"Let's go!" Sora insisted.  
"You're not getting away!" The cat yelled. Suddenly, these dark statues in the room came to life and they were the same black creature that was pulling Vamdemon's stagecoach. They were really pulling out all the stops on us.  
"Devidramon!" Pyocomon shouted. "Evil Dragon Digimon called 'The Multi-eyed Demon.' Their nails can rip through flesh and skewer his enemies from a long distance. Their special attack is Crimson Nail!" Our path was blocked by three of these monsters.  
"Mega Flame!" "Fox Fire!" "Exhaust Flame!" "Mega Blaster!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" "Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" Our Digimon launched all of their attacks but they were either dodged or ineffective. Two of the creatures began to glow their red eyes and were causing some sort of strange effect on our Digimon.  
"I can't move!" Greymon informed. Using the opening, the Digimon charged ahead and began to cause some damage on our friends.  
"That's it, that's it! Get 'em! Get 'em!" PicoDevimon cheered. We quickly ran away from the one Devidramon that was right above us.

"Keep attacking!" Togemon shouted. Kabuterimon grabbed one four-eyed beast and threw him.  
"Mega Flame!" "Fox Fire!" Greymon and Garurumon's attacks hit one of the Devidramon and managed to destroy him.  
"Oh, I'm gonna be late." PicoDevimon tried to go to the gate but was blasted away by Patamon's Air Shot.  
"Hurry!" Patamon shouted at us.  
"Damn it!" Taichi grunted. Two Devidramon were still in our way.  
"Taichi!" "Ross!" Greymon and Growmon charged faster than we ever saw before and tackled both the demons blocking our way.  
"Now! Jump in!" ordered Yamato.  
"All right, let's go!" Taichi said. We ran forward but Growmon was tossed into Greymon and both of them collapsed with a Devidramon on top of them, keeping them pined and freeing up the other one to block us.  
"Taichi!" "Ross!" Our two Digimon cried. Both Taichi and I grabbed our Digivices and saw them starting to change color signaling they were evolving once more.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" You know, those two always seemed to evolve together. Eh, well, with Etemon and TonosamaGekomon before, it just goes to prove how well of a team those two are.  
"All right!" Taichi cheered.  
"Deal with them you two! Hurry!" I shouted. They didn't need to be told twice.  
"Atomic Blaster!" "Giga Destroyer!" Both Digimon launched their devastating attacks that claimed the Devidramon, one for each of the Perfects. They then quickly reverted back to Koromon and Gigimon. The way was now truly cleared.  
"Thanks, Koromon!"  
"Good job, Gigimon!"  
"Let's go, guys!" Taichi said once again.

We ran as fast as we could to the door while Patamon and PicoDevimon were still locked into a fight with each other.  
"Hurry, everyone!" Patamon called out before being swatted away by the cat. "Oh, geez!"  
"Hurry!" Taichi yelled as we tried to run even faster.  
"I can't let you guys pass!" The cat said and suddenly two more Devidramon showed up.  
"They're back!" screamed Jou before the remaining Adult-Level Digimon started to hold them off.  
"Just a little further!" Taichi said. "Come on!"  
"Bye!" The cat taunted before our worst fear came to fruition. The door closed! Taichi ran right into it before falling back into us.  
"Taichi!" Some of us said as we caught him.  
"No…" "We were so close!"  
"Damn it! Damn it!" Taichi ran back up to the door again and started pounding on it. "At this rate, the ninth child is a goner!" We had failed. Vamdemon and his army were now in Japan right now hunting down the ninth child.

And we had no way to get there to stop them now…

* * *

And that was Chapter 28.

Nothing really to say except for the end credits of _Keep on!_ when the items belonging to the group are falling, Ross' is his glasses and headphones.

Next chapter will be at the latest on the 3rd. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	30. Pursuit! Hurry to Japan!

Chapter 29! Sorry for the delay, close Astros win and giving myself an entire day off doesn't really get these done faster.

Anyways, shoutout to **oshawottlover** for the fav/follow. Thanks a lot man.

Anyways, let's rejoin our gang.

* * *

 **Chapter 29: Pursuit! Hurry to Japan!**

 _Vamdemon's Castle, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+98. Late Afternoon.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

We'd missed our window. Vamdemon and his army had now crossed the dimensional gate to Japan in an effort to kill the ninth Chosen Child and the Gate closed right on our faces. To make matters worse, the whole castle was beginning to be filled with Vamdemon's reinforcements comprising entirely of tough Devidramon that were formerly the statures of this place. We had no other options… we had to flee.  
"Run guys!" Yamato shouted as we ran back out the main chamber and into the halls with the hordes of Devidramon on our backs.  
"Petit Thunder!" Tentomon blew us a hole in the walls that we escaped out of and fled from that fortress of terror.

"I see. That's too bad." Gennai told us as we found another one of his projectors before explaining how our plan failed.  
"Just saying it's 'too bad' won't cut it! The ninth child will die if we stay here!" Yamato augured.  
"That's not all! If those Digimon run loose, they'll create massive chaos throughout all of Japan!" informed Sora.  
"We can't afford another delay. We need to get home, now!" I declared.  
"Can't we get the Gate open again?" Taichi asked the old man.  
"It's possible."  
"Really?" Thank goodness, we really need some good news right now.  
"How?" Sora questioned.  
"I can't simply explain it. You'll also be needing the tools that will help you."  
"Well, quit wasting time!" Taichi was almost out of patience as well as the rest of us.  
"Very well. Come over to my house so we can get started."

"Your house?" wondered Koromon. We didn't get an answer as the transmission cut off.  
"He disappears again when we need answers?" Mimi groaned. Suddenly the transmission turned on again.  
"Take a look around you." We followed his cryptic advice and looked around us but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary… at least for this place.  
"There!" Patamon called out. We looked in the direction he was staring at and saw two bright lights waving in the sky. If I had to hazard a guess, they were spotlights that were waving back and forth as a signal to us.  
"If you head towards that light, you will reach my residence."  
"Okay." Taichi nodded.  
"I'll be waiting." His transmission cut out once more.  
"All right, let's go!" We all followed Taichi's lead and headed through the forest to Gennai's house where hopefully, we could find a way to open that gate and get back home to stop that vampire and his followers.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

It was getting close to the evening by the time we finally reached the area where the lights were. It was a small lake that resided in the middle of the mountains and just outside the forest we came out of. However, there was no sign of Gennai's house anywhere, but the lights were still shining… from under the water.  
"Wait a second!" Mimi shouted. "What's going on here?!"  
"Is his house underwater?" Yamato wondered.  
"If so, that's actually pretty smart of him." Sora pointed out.  
"Yeah, just like Nanomon, he was hiding under his enemies noses, considering how close Vamdemon's castle is." Ross agreed.  
"I see." Koushiro seemed to piece all the pieces together to a puzzle that was in his mind. "So this is why I couldn't find him during those two months I searched in the mountains." Wait, I thought it was only a few weeks? Is he considering the entire time Ross and I vanished?

"Anyway, how do we get there?" Jou asked us, thinking that we had an answer. Well, Gomamon planed ahead as he jumped into the water.  
"I'll go take a look!" He didn't need to do much as the whole water began to glow and bubble. "Huh? What's that? I-It's not me!" Another light shot out of the lake and suddenly the water began to part in front of us. It pulled Gomamon down until he was standing on a stone staircase that had been buried in the water.  
"No way!" We all were dumbstruck.  
"Do we use this to go down?" Palmon questioned.  
"Looks that way." Yamato answered.  
"All right. Let's go down and take a look." I suggested. We proceeded to walk past Gomamon before heading down the stairs.  
"Wait up guys!" The seal shouted.

This whole event was absolutely incredible; I don't think any of us had even imagined this is how we'd meet Gennai.  
"It's slippery." Takeru worried.  
"Be careful." Patamon advised as he flew next to him.  
"This remind you of anything, Ross?" I asked.  
"Exodus Fourteen, Twenty One through Twenty Two." He answered.  
"Yeah, now I know how the Israelites felt when they saw the Red Sea part."  
"Look ahead!" Takeru called out. We could see ahead a small Japanese style home through the water that continued to part in front of us.  
"Is that it?" Sora questioned.  
"I think so." Jou guessed.  
"Excuse us!" We all shouted, hopeful to catch Gennai's attention.  
"We're coming in!" I added as we walked through the front gate.  
"This place is kind of cool!" Pyocomon excitedly said.

We soon noticed a small pond and a bridge over it; and on the bridge with his back to us was our mysterious ally in the flesh.  
"Gennai…san?" inquired Koushiro. He turned around to reveal that he was in fact Gennai.  
"I see you've made it here safely, children."  
"Is that really him?" I questioned.  
"Yes." Koushiro told me.  
"Hey, Gramps! There's something I wanna ask you!"  
"What is it?"  
"Why didn't you come meet us directly after all this time?"  
"I like staying at home." He answered as he walked off the bridge and right up towards us. As it turned out, he was actually shorter that most of us, only just a bit taller than Koushiro.  
"Just who are you, anyway?" asked Jou.  
"A human? Or are you a Digimon?" Takeru added.  
"Neither." He answered.  
"Sheesh, be more vague for us, why don't ya?" Ross muttered.

"What does being a Chosen Child mean?" Mimi brought up a really good question.  
"It means that you are children who were chosen to save both this world and your own."  
"But who chose us?" Yamato questioned.  
"Was it you, Gennai-san?" Sora accused. The old man shook his head, answering that it wasn't him.  
"Enough questions. What you need to focus on right now is how to save the ninth child. Now, come inside." We walked inside his home and suddenly found the water poured back in, though it wasn't entering the home. This was obvious with the fact that fish were swimming right outside the door.  
"So pretty~" Takeru and Patamon said as the rest of us sat down at small table.  
"Porgies and flounder?" Jou was confused by the fish. "But this lake is freshwater." The door slid open behind us where Gennai was.  
"Those…are robots I personally made." Whoa, if those are robots then Gennai made them look really real. "It can get pretty lonely living by yourself, you know."

He walked to the other side of the room and a large projector screen came down showing an entire map of Earth.  
"Take a look at this." He pulled out a hand fan that had the rising sun of Japan on it and the picture then zoomed in on Japan.  
"Japan." Koushiro observed. Another zoom and it looked like the entire Tokyo Metropolitan area.  
"Tokyo, right?" Mimi asked.  
"Christ, he's practically right on top of our homes..." Ross cursed. Another zoom, and now it was the bay with a red circle flashing on the map… and I recognized that in heartbeat.  
"That's the Nerima district!" I shouted. Gennai nodded.  
"This is currently where Vamdemon is located." I quickly got up as I recognized more specifically where in Nerima that was and Yamato did the same.  
"What's wrong?" I asked him.  
"No… Nothing serious… You?"  
"No, same here. I was just thinking that he's in Hikarigaoka."  
"Hikarigaoka?" The gang questioned.

 _Hikarigaoka District, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 0918 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

At the same moment, things were acting up in the Nerima Ward. One minute everything was fine for the electrical crew that was preforming some routine maintenance on a street light, the next it starts acting up, much to the confusion of the workers.  
"Hey, Hoshi! What seems to be the problem with it?" One of the workers shouted up to his coworker.  
"Beats me! This is weird… There's nothing wrong with the circuits… I can't tell what's wrong with it!"  
The reason for the weird event was because a group of shadowy figures had appeared on a nearby roof. Vamdemon and his army had now invaded Tokyo.

 _Gennai's Home, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+98. Evening.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

Gennai soon led us to a different room in his home that looked like some sort of library where he seemed to keep all of his books and other items in large drawer.  
"C'mon!" I was starting to lose patience with him. "Tell us how to open the Gate!"  
"Let's not be hasty." He said as he opened a drawer before he grabbed something and hopped down the ladder he was on. "You'll be using these." He place on the floor ten cards that had ten different Digimon on them. The Digimon were Kuwagamon, Agumon, Gazimon, Andromon, Elecmon, Unimon, Digitamamon, Drimogemon, TonosamaGekomon, and Gomamon.  
"There's one of me!" Gomamon seemed excited about that.  
"And one of Agumon!" Koromon added.  
"What are these?" Mimi asked.  
"Cards." I sighed before speaking again.  
"Well, we know that!"  
"Do you remember seeing nine holes in the slate in front of the Gate?"  
"Well, we were a little preoccupied dealing with Vamdemon and his forces to really notice." Ross rubbed the back of his head like he was shameful for not being more observant.

"Um…" Koushiro seemed to be accessing his memories before he smiled. "Yes, there was!"  
"You need to place these cards into those holes."  
"But you gave us one card too many."  
"There's one card I'm not sure of that is mixed in."  
"Which hole do we use for each?" I asked.  
"Well… I don't know." We just groaned once more. His answers… I swear.  
"Oh well. We'll just put the cards in random order and go with that." I really did not expect the speed nor how excitable the old man could get as he suddenly grabbed me from behind and felt like he was trying to tackle me.  
"You can't do that! If you do, you'll get thrown into a completely different and crazy-looking world!" Okay, so I guess this thing is a one and done situation, no second chances.  
"Do that many worlds really exist?" questioned Mimi.  
"Yes! There's also the danger that you may not be perfectly restored on the other side!"  
"What do you mean?"

He let go of my neck and began to clear his own throat as he began to explain.  
"In other words… let's just say, if you pick the wrong card, you might as an example switching skin with your respective Digimon." Mimi's eyes widened as she clearly didn't like the mental image.  
"That is COMPLETELY WRONG!" She yelled. "No no no no no no no…" She kept on going while we continued to listen to Gennai.  
"That's why, unlike Vamdemon who did this by speaking an incantation, you will need to solve this with your own abilities."  
"But there are so many things that are unknown to us." Jou said.  
"Anyway, here are the cards." He handed them to me. "Relax and enjoy yourselves tonight. The enemy won't attack you here."

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

Everyone else had gone to bed though I could notice that Ross was still awake but he said nothing to me as I stayed up to ask a few more things to Gennai. To be honest, I greatly admire him because of his intelligence, even if his wisdom is somewhat hit or miss. Besides, he was the closest thing we could get in terms of answers involving the Digital World, as he was the only one who would really tell us.

"This world is similar to ours, but there's still a lot that is strange about it. Why is that?" I asked him yet another question. Thankfully, he seemed to be more than happy to try and answer as best he could.  
"Do you know what this world is made up of? It's something that is equivalent to the atoms and molecules of your world."  
"Data, right?"  
"Yes. Everything in this world is made up of the data that runs through the computer networks in your world. That's why if you encounter anything strange here, that's because there is something faulty or missing within the data."  
"I see. By the way, Gennai-san, are you also… data?" He made a sound that sounded something like a no. "But you have a real body somewhere, don't you? Just like we do."  
"Nope."  
"Are you different from the Digimon?"  
"Yes. That's because I don't have an attribute." Huh? What does he mean by that?  
"An attribute?"  
"Although this world is created by data, Digimon are further classified by the attributes Data, Virus, and Vaccine."

"I see… so I guess, that Data must be neutral, Vaccine good, and Virus bad in terms of how Digimon are?"  
"Not exactly, while most Vaccine Digimon are good, all three branches have their outliers that go against the norm. In fact, you have a Virus type in your group, did you know that?"  
"Really? Who?"  
"It's Guilmon, he's actually a Virus type Digimon but if brought up right, his type can be quite the force of good, as you probably have seen. By the way, is the Digimon Analyzer useful to you?"  
"Yes." I nodded. "But there is something that's been bothering me."  
"What is that?" I pulled out my laptop.  
"This only contains the data of Digimon that I've met. I can't view the information of Digimon that the others have seen."  
"I see."  
"Could you do something about it?"  
"Yes. Let me borrow that for a while. I'll have it fixed by morning. You should get some sleep."  
"Okay." I handed him the laptop.  
"Hey, Gennai-san?" Ross stepped into the room. "Do you think you could open the outside for a few minutes, I'd like to talk to Taichi in private."  
"Sure… but I think you probably should do like the others and get some rest."  
"This is something I need to say to him, and if I don't do it now… I wanna say this just in case things don't go right."  
"Very well." I walked by the two of them and laid down in the futon that had Tentomon in it before I closed my eyes.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

It was way late in the night but Taichi, myself, Gigimon, and Koromon were up and now sitting on the bridge as the night sky illuminated the area.  
"Okay, is there a good reason why you woke us up?" Gigimon asked.  
"I… I wanna… I'm ready to talk now." I spitted it out.  
"Oh…" The three of them said.  
"Could this have maybe waited?" Koromon questioned.  
"No… I need to say it now… just in case. Now, I'm pretty sure we'll get home no problem, but it wouldn't hurt to get this out of the way now."  
"You sure have a lot of faith in our abilities." Taichi smirked. I did the same.  
"If I didn't have faith, we'd probably all be dead or something."  
"Okay." Taichi nodded. "So you're ready to talk about your depression, well, let me get this out of the way first and assume that this all started when your dad vanished?"  
"Yeah… that's actually the reason why I tried to jump that day. I held on the hope because they never found his body and I assumed he was a prisoner, then one day, I woke up and thought that he was truly gone and that's why I went up to the roof. Looking back, thank goodness I didn't jump."  
"Yeah, I think we're all thankful, but I don't understand, your dad is alive and is coming home, so why are you still depressed?"

"Because it's more than that. Gigimon, do you remember the day you first evolved into Growmon and were saying that I had a lot on my mind?"  
"Yeah, that was because of your depression right? You said you were feeling out of place with the others."  
"Out of place, Ross? Ross, if that's a thing about your race, then drop that imminently because you are not out of place with us, we're all your friends and we'd do anything for you, much as I assume you'd do the same for us." Taichi spoke up.  
"Yeah, well, actually that's kind of the reason why I'm ready to open up; Guilmon said the same thing that day. But I think the biggest problem is that I'm just afraid to get real close to anyone again."  
"Huh?" The all said.  
"I lost Mom in a car accident, Dad was nearly sunk and I was scared that I was left all alone in this world. And now with this whole Digimon then, who knows… I just think life's been really unfair to me. I know that sounds like the most spoiled thing to say because there are definitely people who have it worse than me but…" I sighed.

"Ross, look at me, you're not alone, and you still got family even if your dad didn't make it. You've got me and Hikari. You're more than a friend to us; even if we're not blood, you're still our brother."  
"That's right." Gigimon said. "Hikari said the same thing to me and Koromon; she sees you as a brother as well."  
"I thought you guys were only doing that to make me feel better."  
"What kind of people do you think we are, Ross?" Taichi practically shouted.  
"Don't forget!" Koromon added. "You've got us Digimon as well."  
"We're here for you as well, Ross." Gigimon rubbed up against me like he was a dog. I quickly thought back to when we were home with Hikari and before we went back and I thought about that parting hug we had… I'm such a fool. They were right about everything. Of course, depression can play all kinds of tricks on your mind. But they were all right. I'm not alone, I'm not out of place, and I shouldn't be afraid of what comes ahead.

I was actually beginning to tear up.  
"Guys… thank you. You really are the greatest."  
"So, you all good now?" Koromon asked.  
"No, not entirely, I think maybe talking more with Hikari and Dad will help, but I think that's it definitely helped. And hey, I didn't need to spend a college tuition talking to a shrink." I joked.  
"There he is!" Taichi cheered. "You sound back to your old self."  
"Newsflash, Taichi. I was already sounding like my old self, I just was disguising my feelings."  
"Please, you, disguising?" He laughed.  
"Hey, look, let's get some sleep, we've got a long day tomorrow." Gigimon suggested and we went back to bed. The last thought on my mind as I went to sleep was the fact that now I think that I'm starting to get better again… and that was one of the greatest feelings in the world.

 _Gennai's House, Server Continent, Digital World. A-Day+99. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami__

In the morning of what would be our one-hundredth day in the Digital World, Gennai gave us a very large breakfast. We were going to need it for today.  
"Are you ready?" The old man asked.  
"Yes." We answered.  
"I've added an adapter to Koushiro's laptop. If you insert a Digivice in here, the information of Digimon that its owner has met will be added to the Analyzer. I've also installed several new programs. Take a look at the manual when you have the time."  
"Thank you." Koushiro regained his laptop.  
"It maybe be tough for you, Chosen Children, but have faith in your abilities." That lined sound familiar.  
"The abilities of the Chosen Children, huh?" Jou slammed his face into the table.  
"Hey! Have some faith!" Sora shouted at him.  
"I'm sorry I can't be of any further use. Now go, children! I wish you luck."  
"Okay!" We all said as we packed up and left the home.

A couple of hours later, we were right outside the dark castle once more. This time it seemed a bit too quiet, except for the two Devidramon perched on the tall spire. We walked back into the courtyard and cracked open the gate to the citadel to see multiple Devidramon patrolling the halls.  
"What should we do?" Yamato asked for suggestions.  
"This is bad…" I feared. There was way too many of them and sneaking in was out of the question.  
"Want me to take care of it?" Tentomon awaited permission. Oh right, these guys were only Adult-Level Digimon and Tentomon can go Perfect. I looked back to Koushiro and we both nodded. "Here I go! Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON! Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!" We ran in and the Devidramon looked at us as we ran by. They soon turned their attention back towards the door and the giant beetle awaiting them. "Horn Buster!" The whole place rocked with the attack.  
"Now, while he's distracting them!" Koushiro yelled as we ran towards the main chamber.  
"Horn Buster!" Another massive attack knocked us around and to the ground before Mochimon fell down the stairs into Koushiro's arms.  
"Mochimon!"  
"How was I?"  
"I think you fixed the distortions of the airspace in here!"  
"C'mon, let's move!" I ordered as we ran for the gate.

We reached the main chamber and saw the pedestal that Gennai spoke about. On it were nine slots going three by three. The top row had one star in them, the middle, two, and the third row had three. There were three symbols on top, that being a lion, a centaur, and a monkey. And on the side was a protractor and compass that I think is the Freemason's symbol or something? I looked at the cards and couldn't make heads or tails with them. I started placing them on the floor.

"What's this?" Sora asked.  
"Good guys… Bad guys… Dirty guys…" Yeah, no clue what I'm doing here.  
"You think so? What about small, normal size, and big?" Jou suggested.  
"Maybe the color around them, with the red, green and blue?" Ross gave his two yen.  
"Let me try?" Yamato organized the cards now. "How's this? Weak, so-so, and strong. But we still don't know which card is the wrong one."  
"It must be where they live!" theorized Sora. "Like land or sea."  
"Maybe it's the number of syllables in their name." Mimi thought. A-gu-mo-n, makes four… An-d-ro-mo-n… It still doesn't fit!" Koushiro got up and walked towards the gate.  
"What's the matter?" Mochimon questioned the younger red head.  
"Since Vamdemon broke the seal with magic, the pictures on the slate must also have something to do with magic." He walked back to the pedestal.

"I've seen these marks from occult pages on the Internet."  
"Wait, the occult? That's kinda bad news, anytime they're in movies; it's a horror film that has everyone getting axed off or in a few adventures movies, faces melt off or people rapidly age into dust." Ross interrupted with an Indiana Jones reference. Yeah, I think he's getting back to normal.  
"Anyways…" Koushiro continued. "The lion and archer are from the twelve zodiac constellations. But the monkey isn't a part of it… Also, these stars…"  
"Do you know what they mean?" Mochimon asked.  
"No… But there must be some significance behind them." We heard a loud rumbling noise from outside the chamber.  
"Wh-What's that sound?" questioned Takeru.  
"I don't know." His brother answered.  
"It feels like something awful." Mimi worried.  
"I'll go take a look!" Patamon flew from Takeru's arms to investigate up the stairs.

"What about this?" I asked the group.  
"Well…" Sora didn't have much confidence with this paring I did.  
"Ugh, I wish there was at least some sort of clue or something." Ross moaned.  
"It's useless." Jou summed up.  
"No! Don't say that." Mimi chastised him.  
"Even if we come up with something that might work there's no guarantee that it's the right one."  
"That's true, but…" Yamato trailed off. The place rumbled once more.  
"We have trouble!" Patamon returned. "The castle is crumbling!"  
"What?!" I said.  
"It might be my fault!" Mochimon took blame. "I broke the ceiling earlier!"  
"Anyway, all of the passages are blocked!" Patamon concluded.  
"So now we can't turn back." Yamato informed.  
"That's not all! This place will start breaking down soon, too!" Sora added.

"Taichi." Jou spoke up.  
"What?"  
"I'll let you handle this." What?! Put me on the spot?!  
"Wh-What's this all of a sudden?"  
"I'm not saying I don't want the responsibility. It's because I believe in you."  
"Me, too!" Yamato walked up to me. "In times like this, we should follow the leader's decision!"  
"Hey, hey! Since when did I become leader?!"  
"When you disappeared, all of us fell apart." He grabbed my shoulders. "You were the one who brought us back together again!"  
"What about Ross?"  
"Taichi, I've been following your lead this entire time." He said. "If events had changed and I was stuck back here, I'm positive that I couldn't have kept the group together. Yamato is right."  
"That was just… by coincidence…"

"Who cares about that!" Mimi shouted with her head down.  
"Mimi-chan!" Sora tried to talk to her.  
"Do something to take me back home!" She pulled her head up with a smile on her face. "I've been whining like that all this time, but that's not how it works. I won't speak selfishly anymore!"  
"That's right! If we don't change ourselves, nothing else will!"  
"That's why I'll place trust in my friends!" Jou finished.  
"We're with you, Taichi." Ross said.  
"You guys…" They really believe in me.  
"You agree, right, Takeru?" Yamato asked his little brother.  
"Yeah! Even if we end up in a different world, we'll still be together. That's why I'm not scared!"  
"Right!"  
"What about you, Koushiro-kun?" Sora spoke up.  
"I-I do, too! I've always believed in Taichi-san before this, in any case."  
"Do it, Taichi!" The Digimon shouted. I raised my head back up with my courage regained. If the others put their trust in me, then I better deliver.

"Okay!" I walked up to the gate. "I want to make sure of this one more time. Will you guys really follow my decision?"  
"Yeah." The all nodded.  
"Okay. Then I've decided! Koushiro! I want you to choose!"  
"M-Me? But…"  
"If that's what Taichi-san's decided, then I think it's a good idea." Mimi said.  
"We're counting on you, Koushiro!" Yamato added.  
"Koushiro-san!" Takeru cheered.  
"But… if I'm wrong…"  
"No one will blame you." Jou assured.  
"You're smart. You've got this." advised Ross.  
"We trust you!" Sora chimed in.  
"What they said." I told him.

"Well then." Koushiro went back to the pedestal.  
"Koushiro-han, maybe you'll figure something out with your laptop." Mochimon believed.  
"With my laptop?" He pulled it out. "If I had access to the Internet here, I would be able to ask people who know more about the occult… Eh!?" Looks like he was onto something. "Then… the monkey is… This is it! But what does it mean? Attributes!" Okay, I'm lost but knowing him, he'll probably explain. "Who here has met Digitamamon and TonosamaGekomon?"  
"Uh, me!" Jou raised his hand.  
"Give me your Digivice!" He handed him the device and placed it in that slot that Gennai had installed on Koushiro's laptop. "Maybe…" I think he's got it.  
"Did you figure it out?" I asked.

"Let me explain." He put the cards on the floor and sketched out the boxes. "Listen closely. Take a look at this. The lion, the archer, and the monkey respectively represent Leomon, Kentarumon, and Etemon. Each of these have a different attribute. In other words, Vaccine, Data, and Virus. What I'd like to point out next are the number of stars. From top to bottom, they mean Child, Adult, and Perfect Level. If you put the cards in appropriate places…"  
"It's a perfect fit!" Jou shouted.  
"That's amazing, Koushiro-kun!" Sora praised.  
"But there are two here." He pointed out the Child Vaccine slot where both Agumon and Gomamon's cards laid. "Either of them could be the wrong one, but I can't tell. I'm sorry. I couldn't answer your expectations."  
"What are you talking about? You did great!" Jou told him. We all began to clap for our resident genius.  
"You guys…"  
"You should decide on the rest, Taichi." Sora suggested.  
"Okay. You were a big help, Koushiro. Thanks." Our attention was quickly changed when we felt some dirt fall on our heads and looked up. We soon saw a giant spider Digimon above us as the castle rumbled again.

"Who's that?!" Yamato shouted. Koushiro looked it up on his laptop.  
"I'll have his data in a minute! Dokugmon! Adult-Level Virus Insect Digimon whose entire body is made from a computer virus! His special attack, Stinger Pollination, is released from his sharp fangs!"  
"Anyone who damages Vamdemon-sama's castle will pay with their lives!" The spider declared. More smaller versions of the spider began descending upon us.  
"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAUKMON!" "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" The three Adult-Level Digimon jumped into action as the castle rumbled even more.  
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon destroyed a couple of those smaller spiders.  
"We're running out of time!" Gigimon shouted.  
"Hurry up, while we still can!" Koromon begged me to make a decision about the cards.  
"Right!" I started to place the cards in their right order.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" More attacks, more spiders destroyed, however a few got through and were heading right for Sora.  
"Sora's in danger!" Pyocomon cried. "Pyocomon, evolve! PIYOMON!"  
"Piyomon!"  
"Magical Fire!" The spiders threating Sora were destroyed quickly.

"Which one is it?" I questioned the two remaining cards in my hand. "Agumon or Gomamon?"  
"This place will be down around our ears in the next few minutes!" informed Ross.  
"Taichi-san, hurry!" Mimi said.  
"It doesn't matter which one!" Jou claimed.  
"I won't let you get away!" Dokugmon claimed as he approached from above. He launched multiple strings that tied up the three Adult-Digimon and pulled them up. "Stinger Pollination!"  
"I'm turning numb!" Togemon shouted.  
"The children are next!"  
"Garurumon!" called out Yamato.  
"You can do it!" Sora cried out some support.  
"Garurumon, super-evolve! WEREGARURUMON!" He quickly sliced the webs that freed the other Digimon who fell to the floor as the previous levels. "Yamato!" He then charged right at the eight legged monster and tackled him as the place rumbled even more. We were almost out of time.

"Taichi!" Koromon yelled.  
"Make a decision!" Ross cried.  
"Are you still choosing?" Yamato asked.  
"Pick one!" Sora shouted.  
"All right, I've got it!" I threw both cards down. "This one!" I flipped over the right card which was the Gomamon one. "Hirake, Gomamon!" I declared. Hirake, goma is Japanese for Open, sesame. This is it!  
"Please!" "Open!" Some of the others shouted. The Gate begun to crack right open! We got it opened; now we can only pray that I chose the right one.  
"It's opening!" cheered Sora.  
"All right!" Takeru added.  
"Let's go!" I ordered and we charged for the Gate.  
"We've got to go, too!" I heard Yamato shout from behind us to WereGarurumon.  
"I'll drag you down with me to hell!" Dokugmon was not willing to let us leave alive.  
"Kaiser Nail!" A scream belonging to the spider indicated that he'd been killed.  
"Thank you, Tsunomon! Now let's go!" Yamato thanked was the last thing I heard as I ran through the Gate and was blinded by the bright light before I lost consciousness.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Good lord, my head hurts. Going through that Gate must have taken it really out of me. I felt the ground underneath me cold and wet before I opened my eyes. I could see rolling hills and a forest that was covered in snow.  
"Th-This is…" I heard Yamato groan.  
"Japan?" Taichi questioned. I got up off of my back but not on my feet to see a very familiar structure right near us.  
"This cabin…" Jou muttered. "We're on the campgrounds! We made it back!" Jou cheered. Mimi just suddenly began to cry.  
"This is where we left for the Digimon world…" Sora said.  
"Well, Sora, looks like we did it. Thank you, Jesus!" I shouted for the sky.  
"Hey, wait? Where are our Digimon?"  
"It couldn't have been a dream, right?" Koushiro asked. Sora's look turned to one of sadness.  
"Maybe… Maybe it was the wrong card." Shoot, did we really choose wrong?

"Sora!" Nope, we guessed right because that was Piyomon's voice!  
"Or not!" Sora followed up her statement. All of our Digimon were standing right near the steps leading to the cabin.  
"Looks like you're all awake." Palmon said.  
"Where were you guys?" Taichi asked. They all pulled out bushes that had berries on them.  
"Looking for food." Gomamon answered. Jou laughed.  
"This is Japan, so you don't need to eat that stuff anymore!"  
"You'll be able to eat nicer things!" Mimi informed.  
"Welcome back!" The Digimon said.  
"We're home!" We shouted.  
"Taichi? Why didn't you choose my card?" Koromon asked the goggle-wearing boy.  
"Your card? Oh, uh, I wanted to keep it as a souvenir."  
"Really?" Our fates were determined on him wanting to have a souvenir? I swear, he's as dense as Satoshi from Pocket Monsters sometimes.  
"A-Anyway! We should start looking for the ninth child!"  
"Yeah. Vamdemon must have already made his move." Yamato pointed out.  
"Hikarigaoka! I'm sure that's where the ninth child is. Let's find the child before they do and save him!"  
"Yeah!" We shouted. Sure, we had to find this kid and deal with Vamdemon here in Japan but he was on our turf now and there was one thing to be sure about. We made it back.

We made it home, all of us…

* * *

And that was Chapter 29.

Not much to other than the next chapter will try to be on the 7th and we're beginning mine and probably your favorite arc of this show.

Take care, everyone.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	31. Mammon! Clash at Hikarigaoka!

Chapter 30! We're finally back in Japan and now we really hit it me on fire writing and getting this done much soon than I thought. I was on a roll! Then again, this is the part of the story I was looking forward to.

Shout out to **MadDogLucario96** with his review summing it up well. A race against the clock... now why didn't I come up with that line, that would've been perfect!

And to our guest reviewer, what story? About his depression? That was in the last chapter and he'd more or less say it to Hikari as well off screen. Truth be told, I didn't feel that great after I wrote that part, seemed a little weak in my opinion, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on how I handled that conversation Ross and Taichi had in the last chapter.

One last thing, I'm jamming to _'Automatic - (12" ExtendedMix)'_ by the Pointer Sisters, thank you GTA Series Videos and your GTA 20th Anniversary Tribute Trailer that introduced me to this great song.

Anyways, the kids are back, but they're still at camp and Vamdemon's in Tokyo. How are they going to get back and beat him to their goal of finding the ninth child?

* * *

 **Chapter 30: Mammon! Clash at Hikarigaoka!**

 _Summer Camp, 50 Kilometers Northwest of Tokyo, Japan. August 1_ _st_ _, 1999. Morning.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

We successfully made it back home from the Digital World, now our concern was dealing with Vamdemon and finding ninth child before him. It was a race we could not afford to lose. Unfortunately, he's in Hikarigaoka and unlike last time with Taichi and I; we're on the campgrounds away from the city.  
"You don't think Vamdemon has already found the ninth child, do you?" Sora asked.  
"According to my calculations thanks to Ross-san and Taichi-san, not even a minute should have passed between Vamdemon's arrival in Hikarigaoka and our appearance here. The flow of time between the two worlds is different." explained Koushiro.  
"The problem is how we get to Hikarigaoka. It's pretty far from here." Yamato pointed out.  
"That's right. Taichi and myself were transported right by our apartment in Odaiba the last time." I pointed out.  
"Is today really the same day we were in camp?" Jou brought up. "We stayed for months in the other world."  
"That's true… No matter how different the flow of time may be, we don't know for sure." Mimi said.  
"I'll go take a look at the camp! We shouldn't have taken up that much time." Taichi shouted as he ran down the steps.

He was towards the bottom of the stairs when he stopped and turned around to see the rest of us following him down the stairs. Koromon hopped wrong and fell right into his arms.  
"Koromon! You don't all have to come!"  
"But still…" Mimi protested.  
"I'm going as camp group leader!" Jou made a good point.  
"We're all curious about what could have happened while we were gone." Koushiro said.  
"But how do we explain it if someone saw these guys?" Taichi asked. I walked up to him with Gigimon in my arms.  
"Relax, let me do the talking." I assured him.  
"Why I am I suddenly worried?"  
"Yagami!" A voice shouted. We turned around to see a tall, black haired man with glasses running up some more stairs towards us.  
"Sensei!"  
"It's Fujiyama-sensei!" Sora informed. Fujiyama Hideo was one of our teachers and was one of the heads of this whole school camp trip.  
"Sensei!" Taichi ran up to him with me close behind. Taichi, unfortunately, over ran a bit and ran into him which knocked him onto the ground.

"You idiot!" Mr. Fujiyama shouted. "Why are you loitering around here and not clearing out your things?"  
"U-Um, well…" Taichi was trying to think of an excuse.  
"What do you mean, clearing out?" My eyes nearly popped out of my head because Koromon was about to blow the lid on us! Thank goodness, Mr. Fujiyama was looking away at that moment and Taichi quickly covered his mouth.  
"Listen, Sensei, we're the farthest cabin so we're a bit out of the loop, so why are we clearing out?" I covered.  
"We can't stay camping here in this snow, of course! Everyone else is getting ready to go home."  
"O-Oh, yeah!" Taichi tried to play it cool.  
"What are those filthy things you're holding? Are they toys?"  
"Y-Yes, that's right!"  
"Who are you calling filthy?!" I think I heard Mochimon mutter before it sounded like Koushiro tightened his lid.  
"You can't talk!" He whispered.  
"Pretend you're stuffed animals." Yamato advised the Digimon.

"Th-These are, uh, plushies!" Taichi explained.  
"I can see that." Mr. Fujiyama wasn't exactly letting us off yet.  
"S-Someone threw them out there and we found them!" Mimi gave an excuse that actually seemed plausible.  
"Y-Yeah, that's it! They were in a remote region deep within the mountains where people never pass through! We went through lots and lots of trouble before we finally got them!" Jou gave a further explanation. I placed my hand on my face. That sounds more implausible. Heck, maybe we should tell him the truth; he'd dismiss it immediately due to how outlandish it would sound.  
"How did you even find them in the first place if they were in an area that people don't go through?" My point exactly.  
"Th-That just tells you what a difficult place they were in! Right, guys?" Taichi said.  
"Right!" We all nodded.  
"S-See?" He held up Koromon.

"You remember that my little sister Hikari wasn't able to come, right? I thought I'd give this to her as a souvenir. She likes this kind of stuff."  
"Oh yeah, she had a cold, didn't she?"  
"But she's all better now. I made her omelets."  
"You?" Taichi realized his slip up.  
"B-Before I came to camp, that is!" He laughed.  
"A souvenir for your sister, huh?"  
"Yeah, same here with me, sir. Plus, going home means I can welcome back my dad from that POW camp." I added.  
"I almost forgot about your father, McGlathery. Well, that's nice to hear. Anyways, after you've all finished gathering your bags, meet up at the parking lot."  
"Okay!" We said as he ran off.  
"Don't be long about it!"  
"Okay!"

"Idiot! Blow the whole cover while you're at it?" I yelled at Taichi as we were back in the cabin packing our bags. I had a checklist indicating if I had collected all my N64 games.  
"I'm sorry, I slipped."  
"Come on, Ross; don't be so hard on him." Gigimon said.  
"Yeah, he didn't mean it." Koromon added.  
"Look, I just don't want to answer a bunch of questions right now." I told them.  
"None of us do. The last thing we need is for panic to be raised in the city about uncontrollable monsters." advised Koushiro.  
"I still can't believe that we're back." Mimi almost began crying again.  
"Yeah, well, don't get too relived yet. We still have to deal with Vamdemon." Yamato reminded.  
"Hey!" Koromon spoke up again. "How do we get to Hikarigaoka?"  
"I've got a plan." Taichi informed.

 _Hikarigaoka District, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 0934 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

Back in Hikarigaoka, Vamdemon's forces had begun to spread out in a search for the ninth child. On one of the apartment roofs, Tailmon and PicoDevimon were the only ones with Vamdemon at this point in time.  
"So the ninth child is near here?" questioned Tailmon.  
"Yeah. Isn't that right, Vamdemon-sama?" PicoDevimon asked of his master. He turned to see the vampire not looking well. "What's the matter, sir?"  
"I will wait in the world of darkness until that ball of light disappears." He groaned in pain as he took to the shadows by the door. "Take care of the rest, Tailmon." He threw to her a Tag that had a pink Crest in it with the symbol of a circle with eight points like a sun similar to Taichi's.  
"Leave it to me, Vamdemon-sama!" The vampire ran back into the building with PicoDevimon trying to follow him.  
"Please, wait for me!" The door slammed on the small bat's face and he rammed right into it.

 _Summer Camp, 50 Kilometers Northwest of Tokyo, Japan. August 1_ _st_ _, 1999. 0944 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida__

We had managed to quickly gather our things and now we were on the way to the buses that would take us back to Tokyo. Still, we had no idea how to get to Hikarigaoka as Taichi refused to explain what exactly his plan was.  
"Listen up. Don't ever open your mouths in front of the other humans, got it?" Taichi advised the Digimon.  
"Okay!" They muttered.  
"We got it." Gomamon assured.  
"We just need to pretend to be dolls, right?" Palmon asked for confirmation.  
"Whoa, Taichi!" Koromon shouted. Taichi silenced him once more.  
"I just told you not to talk!"  
"But there are so many children!"  
"I didn't know there could be so many human children!" Piyomon was surprised.  
"It's too early for you to be surprised just by this. There are thousands of more children all throughout the world. No, make that millions!" Sora told her. All the Digimon were shocked at that number.  
"Eh!? There are millions of Soras?!"  
"There's only one of me!" Sora was upset at that suggestion.  
"When we go to the city, you'll see tons more adults and children, too!" Takeru said.

"Now, just a reminder to some of us. I know we've experienced more time and haven't truly seen some of our non-Chosen Child friends in over three months, or a month in me and Taichi's case, but try to act like you just saw them yesterday." Ross gave some advice, it would look weird if we talked to our friends like we haven't seen them in forever when in reality, we technically saw them yesterday. Of course, that advice seemed to have flown past Mimi as she ran towards her friends.  
"Mii-chan! I missed you!"  
"But I was with you yesterday." The dark blonde haired girl was confused. A brown haired girl with a pony-tail walked up.  
"What's the matter?"  
"Taeko! How are you?" Mimi hugged the girl.  
"Hey, Mimi…" Both girls sweat dropped at the awkwardness.  
"Oh, Mimi…" Palmon said as she getting herself off the ground as she had tripped trying to follow Mimi.  
"We keep telling her that time hasn't passed here, but she still doesn't listen." Taichi moaned.  
"I understand how you feel, but we need to focus on how to get to Hikarigaoka quickly." Koushiro reminded.

"Hey, Ross!" A black-haired boy ran up to him.  
"Hey, Takeo. What's up?"  
"What's up? Shoot, what kept you guys, I was worried the buses were gonna take off without you." He joked. At the same time, Taichi ran up to Mr. Fujiyama who was talking to one of the drivers.  
"Sensei! Fujiyama-sensei! Could you drop us off somewhere along the way?"  
"Drop you off? Of course not! I have a responsibility to make sure all of you get back to your homes."  
"Oh c'mon, don't say that! Please! You just have to take us near the housing complex in Hikarigaoka."  
"Hikarigaoka? Why there?"  
"Yeah, what exactly is there?" Takeo asked as he and Ross ran up to Taichi and our teacher.  
"Well, we did live used to live there, or well, Taichi did and I stayed there during school nights." Ross explained.  
"Yeah, we just suddenly felt like seeing it again." added Taichi. The rest of us excluding Mimi walked up behind them.  
"Please!" We all begged.  
"You guys, too?"  
"Yes!"

"Hikarigaoka is actually pretty close to the road we're taking. When we go on the Kan-etsu Expressway and interchange to the Tokyo Gaikan, we'll be passing through Ooizumi. That place is within walking distance to Hikarigaoka." The driver informed us.  
"Great, then could you drop us off there, mister?" Taichi asked.  
"Hey! I haven't given you my permission yet!" Mr. Fujiyama clearly wasn't budging. Well, time to use our trump card. It's evil, but we can't afford the delay of going to Odaiba then taking the rail line back to Hikarigaoka.  
"Please, Sensei!" I shouted. "We really want to see the place where our family lived happily together, before our parents divorced!"  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru hugged me tight as he started to cry.  
"Takeru!"

"Please, Sensei!" Jou ran up. "Let us off at Hikarigaoka! I'll be responsible for escorting them back home later!"  
"Well, I guess it'll be okay if a sixth-grader like you is with them, Kido. Make sure to call your parents and let them know about this."  
"Okay! Thank you!" Ross, Jou and Taichi said.  
"By the way, what about your stuff? Are you planning on taking that with you to Hikarigaoka?"  
"Well, I don't know about the others, but I can drop off Taichi and Ross's stuff at their apartment if they want." Takeo offered.  
"Hey, thanks, Takeo." Ross thanked as the boy smiled and walked away. "Hey, don't steal Smash Bros. from me while you're at it!"  
"I'm gonna!" Takeo mouthed off. Soon the driver and Mr. Fujiyama walked away as well; the guys turned their attention back to us.

"Yahoo!" Taichi cheered. "Hey, how long are you two gonna keep that up?" He asked in reference to me and Takeru. Takeru let go of me and had a smile on his face.  
"What's going on?" Jou asked.  
"It didn't seem like he'd let us go unless we pulled out some waterworks." I told him.  
"So it was all an act?" Jou looked completely surprised. "I was desperate to get Sensei's approval because I thought it was true!"  
"Now, now." Taichi said. "Things worked out, so forget about it." The buses engines started and we could see Mimi already getting on board with her friends.  
"Oh, Mimi's already forgotten about me!" Palmon worried. "Wait for me!" Sora and Koushiro ran up to her to keep her quiet. The next few moments we were all loaded up on the same bus and headed away from the camp back to the city.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

On the bus, Mimi and her friends were behind me and Yamato while some of our large Digimon like Palmon and Piyomon were up in the overhead bins with some of our stuff. We had some other friends or in Jou's case, a neighbor, who'd take our stuff home while we went on to Hikarigaoka to find the ninth child.  
"It's alright. It's still working properly in this world." Koushiro explained about his laptop in front of us while Taichi and Ross occupied seats in front of him.  
"That's great." Taichi said. Sora, on the other side of Ross and Taichi and with Jou in the row behind her, had out her Digivice in the hopes that maybe she'd pick up a signal for the child.  
"The Digivice is also working." She told us.

"What are those things?" Mr. Fujiyama walked up. "Is that what's all the rage among kids these days?"  
"No, that's not really…!" Jou shouted.  
"Let me have a look."  
"You can't!" Taichi said.  
"Don't be stingy. After all, I'm letting you guys get off at Hikarigaoka."  
"Quick, pass it off as a Tamagotchi!" Ross loudly whispered to Sora.  
"O-Okay." She handed hers to the teacher.  
"That's good manners you've got there, Takenouchi. You're an obedient girl, unlike some other kid I know!"  
"Ha!" Takeo laughed a bit too loud.  
"Watch it, Juruichi; I might have been referring to you."

"It's okay to just let him take a look at it." assured Koushiro to Taichi.  
"I felt like we were being attacked by an evil Digimon or something." Taichi said.  
"Fujiyama-sensei is an evil Digimon?"  
"Yeah, he's pure evil! I mean, when you forget your homework, he snares you with his tickle attack!"  
"I heard that last part." Mr. Fujiyama had his hands on Taichi's shoulders before he started to tickle Taichi. We all laughed at that. Thank goodness, I won't have him as a teacher since I go to a different school.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back in Hikarigaoka, Tailmon was keeping close tabs on multiple kids before she would move on the next area. Thanks to her feline looks, she could easily pass off as a normal cat and not have any attention directed to her. The past hour she was having no luck with the Crest as it didn't glow whenever she was near anyone.  
"It's not reacting at all." She muttered to herself. "What does this mean? Isn't the ninth child supposed to be around here?" Her ears twitched as she heard the sound of a dog growling at her. It charged at her but she merely jumped onto a fence and smacked the dog with her tail before the mutt ran off. She decided to cut her losses and return back to Vamdemon with the news that the child could not be found.

Vamdemon had established a hideout underneath a parking garage where he could rest in his coffin and not go out in the sun. He was somewhat disappointed with the news that Tailmon had brought him, but wasn't too surprised. The city turned out to be much larger than he originally anticipated and he wasn't one to risk a full frontal assault yet, as his powers in this world were still fairly weak.  
"You can't find the child?" He answered back to Tailmon's report.  
"Yes, sir. At the very least, the child doesn't appear to be within the vicinity of Hikarigaoka."  
"PicoDevimon." The bat flew next to him as Vamdemon rose out of his coffin. In the talons of the small Digimon were even more Crests.  
"What are those?"  
"I've copied the ninth child's Tag and Crest. The one you have is also a copy."  
"Then where's the real one?" He revealed another in his hands.  
"Here in my grasp. Even though it is a copy, it will still react when the Chosen Child is nearby. Do everything you can to find the ninth child!"  
"Sir!" His two loyal hands bowed.  
"Those filthy children… I will do everything in my power to eliminate you!"

 _Hikarigaoka District, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 1032 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi__

The buses soon came to a stop and we hopped out with our respective Digimon and soon ended up on a bridge overlooking the highway by the apartments.  
"Is that the Hikarigaoka housing complex?" Koromon asked Taichi.  
"Yeah."  
"Wow! You used to live in that big castle, Sora?" Piyomon said to me as some of the others chuckled on that comment. I love how so innocent these Digimon can be sometimes.  
"It's not a castle. It's divided into smaller rooms inside and a lot of people live there." I explained.  
"Did you live in Hikarigaoka, too, Sora?" I nodded.  
"Sora, Ross and I were in the same class." Taichi informed. "Dai-san Elementary School, Class 1-2." Dai-san means the Third. "Ross would've gone to a school in Yokohama but he wanted to attend with me, as I was really the only kid he knew when his dad was transferred over to Japan. He'd live at my place during school days then head back to his apartment in Yokohama on Fridays." He went into further detail.  
"I could've easily said that, but yeah, that's basically it." Ross said.  
"Huh, I was in Dai-yon Elementary School." Yamato told us. Dai-yon means the Fourth.

"Th-Then…" Jou stuttered. "That means you _weren't_ lying in order to trick the teacher?"  
"It's true that we lived in Hikarigaoka."  
"Yeah, I remember a little of it." Takeru chimed in.  
"I went to Dai-go Elementary School here." Jou said. Dai-go translated is the Fifth.  
"I lived here during kindergarten." Mimi added.  
"So did I!" Koushiro exclaimed. "But it was only for a little while."  
"Then that means all of us once lived in Hikarigaoka." Taichi summed up.  
"This can't be a mere coincidence."  
"Yeah…" We all muttered.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

At the same time, Vamdemon's forces were on the move in their search for the ninth child. One of these searchers was a large woolly mammoth with a metal face and snout and one large eye that was causing massive damage. The tusked monster was crushing large box trucks underneath his feet, tearing out light poles with his snout; even threw a motorcycle that belonged to a nearby bystander.  
"My motorbike! Who did that! Was it you?! How dare you ruin my bike!" The guy didn't seem that phased out by the giant mammoth. The mammoth just roared. The guy threw his helmet at the beast before running but the helmet was deflected by the mammoth's snout and flew right back to its owner, nailing him in the back of the head. The mammoth moved on from the man by walking past him further down the road. "Who the hell let their elephant off the leash?!"

"Why is there an elephant in Hikarigaoka?" A nearby couple was watching as the husband questioned the sight.  
"It must be for a movie or something!" The wife claimed.  
"Very convincingly made. It looks like a real monster!" The couple was really unaware of the danger as the mammoth smashed right through a walkway bridge. Tailmon was on a building up above watching the chaos.  
"What is that oaf planning to gain by causing all of this chaos? I shouldn't have brought that Digimon with us." She hopped away as the mammoth walked right into a crossroad and cause a large traffic jam.  
"What the hell is an elephant doing here?" A driver shouted. He quickly hopped out when the beast brought his foot down, crushing the car. He then used his snout to stab another box truck before throwing it into a bunch of other cars, smashing them into twisted wrecks. "I'm calling the cops…" The driver pulled out his cell phone but when he put it to his ear, there was a strange crackling sound coming from it. "It won't connect!"

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"This place is familiar." I said looking at a nearby convenience store. "I often came here to buy candy and juice!"  
"I used to come here, too!" Mimi chimed.  
"It sure brings back memories!" exclaimed Jou.  
"Takeru. You may not remember, but we used to play around here a lot." Yamato told his little brother.  
"But I do feel like I know this place." Takeru had a large smile on his face when he said that.  
"How long did you live in Hikarigaoka, Koushiro-kun?" Sora asked.  
"I don't think I even stayed here for a year… Probably a couple of months." He informed as he sat on the guard rail to the road.  
"That's pretty short. Why is that?" I questioned.  
"I don't know."

"I can answer that question for you!" Jou walked up.  
"You can, Jou-senpai?" Sora like the rest of was curious how.  
"But you didn't know Koushiro at all back then." I reminded.  
"Even if I did, I still have a good idea of what happened. To make a long story short, the reason why Koushiro-kun's family moved was because of a terrorist bombing in 1995!" Our eyes widened.  
"A terrorist…" Sora muttered.  
"Bombing?" Koushiro finished.  
"You may want to clarify that, Jou-san.'95 wasn't that great of a year for this city. In March, we had the sarin gas attack on the subway." Ross explained.

"Oh, right. Almost forgot about that one. Anyways, that wasn't the bombing I was referring to, however. You guys may not remember this, but there was a terrorist bombing here in Hikarigaoka four years ago. They still haven't found the criminal, I think." Jou summed up.  
"Yeah, I remember no groups came forward to claim the attack, and unlike the sarin gas, there were no casualties." Ross added. Jou nodded in agreement.  
"My parents said they didn't want to live here in such a dangerous place, so we moved to Odaiba."  
"That's right!" Sora's memory seemed to click. "It was the same with my family! I remember they mentioned something about a bomb!" This all sounded really familiar to me, but why?  
"Now that you mention it, I feel like that's what happened." I told the gang. Our conversation was interrupted when multiple police cars rang right past us.  
"What's that?" Mimi asked.  
"Could it be Vamdemon?"

We ran towards where the cars were going and saw that in fact it was Digimon trouble as the area was being rocked by a large woolly mammoth Digimon.  
"It's one of Vamdemon's Digimon!" I shouted.  
"That's Mammon!" Koushiro read off the Analyzer on his laptop. "He's a Perfect-Level Digimon who has enormous ancient power. His special attacks are Tusk Strikes, where he fires his two tusks and Tundra Breath, which releases a cold blast from his nose." A cop car pulled right in front of us.  
"You kids!" The officer shouted. "It's dangerous here! Find shelter!" He pulled up his radio. "Hello? Hello? I request some urgent backup! Hello?! That's weird…" Looks like his radio was on the fritz, just like other electronics when the Digimon are involved like back at camp with the storm or at home with the Digimon crossing over. Mammon's ears twitched and he looked back our way.

"He's seen us!" I cried.  
"Hurry and get out of here!" The officer sped away. Mammon roared before he charged at us.  
"He's coming for us!" Koromon, Tsunomon and Gigimon hopped out of our arms with angry looks on their faces.  
"No! He's a Perfect-Level, you three can't face him!" reminded Yamato. Piyomon ran forward.  
"Let me handle it!" She offered.  
"Piyomon!" Sora called out.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" The phoenix took off high in the sky and begun her attack. "Meteor Wing!" The attacks did nothing as one hit Mammon in the foot while another hit the tusk and bounced off to destroy a bunch of phone booths. The moment I saw the fire clear and see the charred remains of that booth… I suddenly had a horrific flashback that I think was after that night of the bombing. And it was clear I wasn't the only one as the sounds some of the others made, sounded like they were having the same reaction.

Mammon rammed his horn right through an abandoned bus and tossed it towards Birdramon; she could easily fly over it but the wrecked bus served as yet another reminder of the night. We all shared the same reaction yet again but why? Why is this all coming to us now? Birdramon launched another assault but was smacked away but the mammoth's snout and he launched his Tusk Strikes at her. The attack grazed her but still was powerful enough to send her crashing down out of our view.  
"Birdramon!" Sora shouted.  
"Monsters!" Takeru yelled. "Two monsters!"  
"What are you talking about, Takeru?" I asked.  
"That's it! I remember now!" Yamato exclaimed. "A long time ago, Takeru insisted that he saw monsters but Mom scolded him. I kinda left him out to hang because I didn't want my mom to get upset or worry that we both were seeing things. That's why I couldn't say anything."  
"When did this happen?" inquired Koushiro.  
"The same time as the bombing."

Another explosion rocked the area as Birdramon returned to engage Mammon as we all watched from a walkway bridge. The memories continued to flood.  
"This is…" I muttered.  
"This is where the terrorist bombing took place!" Jou informed.  
"This bridge…" We quickly ran off when we saw Mammon aiming right towards it before he blasted it.  
"This is the same as what happened back then!" Mimi shouted.  
"It's as if events are replaying as they were before!" Ross added. We took cover under the bridge but more attacks hit it.  
"It's exactly the same! A fireball destroyed the bridge!" Jou explained.  
"No! The one that shot out fireballs that time wasn't flying! It was something else!" Yamato recalled.  
"You're right!" I agreed. "There was a fight… between something and something else!" Ugh! Why is my memory of that night so fuzzy?! The battle took a bad turn when Birdramon was tugging on Mammon's snout before his horrible Tundra Breath that froze poor Birdramon and blew her back into the bridge which we thankfully cleared. Sora and I ran up to her.

"Birdramon!" Sora shouted.  
"Sora!" She said as Sora's Crest and Digivice glowed. "Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!" Mammon launched more tusks at us and Garudamon dived on us to shield us from the blast.  
"Garudamon!" I suddenly remembered more! What I saw back then… Hikari was with me that night! I shielded her much like how I did with Sora a moment ago. My memory finally clicked as I remember the one of the original combatants. It wasn't an ordinary monster… The one who save me and Hikari back then was… Greymon!  
"That's right!" I shouted to the others. "It was Greymon!"  
"That's it!" Yamato remembered.  
"That's why I thought he looked so familiar when Agumon first evolved against Shellmon, it's because I had seen him before!" informed Ross.  
"I'm sure that's right!" Koushiro added.

Meanwhile, Garudamon had turned her attention from protecting us to defeating that woolly mammoth once and for all. She hopped on to his back like he was a horse and began riding him as such. At the same time, I explained more about what happened that day.  
"A Koromon came to my house that day. That Koromon turned into Agumon… And then he became Greymon… and fought with another Digimon! Yeah, I'm sure of it!" At this point, Garudamon had now grabbed Mammon by the snout and dragged him up high before letting him go and dropping him on his back, leaving him helpless to her final attack.  
"Shadow Wing!" The flaming phoenix flew straight towards the helpless Digimon, engulfed him in flames, and he disintegrated into data. We ran straight to where Garudamon was now devolving back into Pyocomon who fell from the sky until she was caught by Sora.  
"Pyocomon!" Sora cheered as the two nuzzled each other.

We quickly looked around to see the highway had been utterly wrecked as before. This was sadly probably just a prelude to what will come if we can't defeat Vamdemon quickly. At the very least, the good news was it was just like last time as in there were no casualties.  
"The two disappeared somewhere after the fight." I finished explaining my side of the story related to that night.  
"You're right." Koushiro spoke up.  
"So that's why it was labeled a terrorist attack." Jou pieced everything together.  
"No wonder Hikari knew about Koromon." Ross said.  
"That's right! It's because she met him back then!" I concluded.  
"She met you?" Patamon asked Koromon.  
"It must have been a different Koromon. But… When I met Taichi for the first time, I felt like I'd always known him." We didn't go any further in that because we heard the sirens wailing from the police who sounded like they were on their way.  
"This is bad! They won't stop interrogating us if we get caught!" worried Jou.  
"Yes, they won't let us go that quickly." Koushiro agreed.  
"Let's get out of here!" I ordered as we escaped and got away from the area before the vehicles had a chance to spot us.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We slowed down as we stopped at a park near the rail station as we quickly regrouped our thoughts about what had happened four years ago as well as a few minutes ago.  
"I've been wondering about this for a long time now." Koushiro said. "Out of all of those children at camp, why were we the only ones who were chosen? But now I've finally figured out a clue to solving that mystery."  
"The incident from four years ago." Mimi caught on.  
"Yes. All of us are linked by the fact that we have already met the Digimon four years ago!"  
"Wait, you saw the fight too, Ross? I thought you were in Yokohama that night?" Taichi brought up.  
"No, it was a few days after the school went on summer break when a good friend of Dad, a Japanese Lieutenant who served as a naval liaison between the two navies at the base asked if he could house sit for him for a day or two. Dad wasn't going to leave seven-year old me alone in Yokohama so we got to that apartment late that afternoon. I was watching the fight that happened later that night. I truly had no idea that you and Hikari were right in the thick of it, to be honest." I explained to him.  
"So, if we all witnessed that battle during that night, then that must also be the same for ninth child!" Yamato guessed.  
"There is no doubt about it! The ninth child, too, should have witnessed that event!" Koushiro concluded.

"But maybe Vamdemon's already found him!" Jou feared. "If the ninth child saw the incident, then the child must live in Hikarigaoka, right?"  
"That's not true." Mochimon said with confidence. "Since Mammon was wandering around here alone, then the others must still be scattered throughout this place and searching for the ninth child." That actually sounds right. If the child was indeed found, then I'm certain that Vamdemon would've gathered his forces back up to prepare for a large scale attack on the city. So the good news was that Vamdemon was still looking; the bad news was that our search area had just widened greatly to encompass the entire city.  
"We will find him faster than those guys!" promised Taichi. "The ninth Chosen Child! One of us!"

One thing is for sure right now, it is gonna be a long slog before we can truly claim victory…

* * *

And that was Chapter 30. Done much quicker than I expected.

Nothing much to say other than the next chapter will be on the 9th or sooner.

Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to go and fill my nostalgia for the day by watching Christopher Robin in theaters. _*Cue the theme song to The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh*_

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	32. The Great Digimon Crossing in Tokyo!

Chapter 31! Nice to see you all guys again.

Few things to get out of the way.

Shoutout to **Haxs0rz** for the follow. And for the reviews!

To **MadDogLucario96** , Glenn Frey (R.I.P.) is right, The Heat is On!

To **Dynasty Black** , thank you so much for the kind words, I hope I'll be able to continue producing a great story for you.

Now, this chapter is going to go quite a bit off with the original episode. I took some painful efforts to follow the actual Metro route the kids took on Google, though I can't be 100% confident due to the fact that I saw it for 2018 and not an 1999 map. But the main thing is that I basically cut out my least favorite part of this show and that was the kids hitchhiking to Odaiba. (Take Rick Springfield's advice: _'~Don't Talk to Strangers!~'_ ) Both the Japanese and English dubs just really... puts me off. Now it will still be similar, but if you're expecting that van driver, (or Duane), sorry to disappoint.

One last thing, I've included a surprise cameo by three characters, one in the middle of the chapter, and two right towards the end. See if you can find them and PM me who they are. (It won't really be that hard. I'm not that subtle.)

Oh, and forgive me for the announcement the police give for Hikarigaoka. I may have go carried away, but I honestly believe their official statement would be a bit long.

Anyways, with all that out of the way, next stop, Odaiba!

* * *

 **Chapter 31: The Great Digimon Crossing in Tokyo!**

 _Hikarigaoka District, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 1103 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

"What?" Vamdemon was surprised by the news that PicoDevimon had just delivered him in his hideout. "Garudamon has been sighted?"  
"Yes. It's reported that the Chosen Children have also come to this world." PicoDevimon continued his report. The children returning were a surprise to Vamdemon. He was sincerely hoping that he left them trapped in the Digital World or that any attempts to cross back over would kill them all. But it sounds like they fought their way through his defenses and now were back in the Human Realm in an effort to stop and destroy him.  
"Have you found the ninth child yet?"  
"We're currently raising our efforts and expanding our search perimeters. Tailmon, I believe is now south of here and in a district called Suginami. Wizarmon is searching an area called Mitaka. And DeathMeramon is somewhere in Minato. We have others carrying the search in other locations; some of our followers that are masters of the sea are currently patrolling in the bay and waterways of this city. I assure you, Vamdemon-sama, that the ninth child will not escape our grasp."  
"The children must also be looking for the ninth child. Hurry! We mustn't let the children gain the upper hand!"  
"Yes, sir!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After we came to our conclusion that the ninth child witnessed the Digimon clash at Hikarigaoka back in '95, and more than likely had probably moved out of the area, we walked over to the nearby subway station in the area, Line No. 12, the Toei Oedo Line.  
"If the ninth child's not here in Hikarigaoka, we should hurry up and look in other places. We can't waste our time here or Vamdemon will get ahead of us." Taichi reminded of our mission at hand.  
"But… He might have left to take a little vacation somewhere else." Mimi gave a valid idea. It's true that the ninth child might for all we know be out of town or even out of the country on vacation.  
"No, I don't think so." determined Koushiro. "The other connection we have between us is that."  
"We all moved from Hikarigaoka?" Sora guessed what Koushiro was meaning.  
"Yes. If that's not just a coincidence, then we should assume that the ninth child has also moved."  
"So, could he be in Odaiba just like us?" Taichi asked.  
"That's our most likely possibility."  
"Well, we're not gonna find the child by just standing around here and talking." I said.  
"I want to go home!" Mimi declared, catching Taichi off guard.  
"A-Alright! Anyway, let's head to Odaiba first!"  
"Yeah!" We all nodded as we headed down the stairs.

We walked up to the purchase screens and the rail maps to try to find the most efficient way back home. Unless you've got the city and its rail lines memorized, it's easy to get lost.  
"Let's see... the fastest way to get to Odaiba…" Jou muttered as he looked at the map.  
"I can't tell because there are so many routes available." Mimi shrugged.  
"Please wait just a minute." Koushiro sat on the floor with his laptop out as he typed away on it. "The fastest way to get there is… Okay, if we take the Toei No. 12 Line from here to Nakano-sakaue, transfer to the Marunochi and Ginza Lines and leave from Shimbashi, the Yurikamome route will take us to Odaiba."  
"Wait a minute." I spoke up. "Does it involve us crossing the Rainbow Bridge?" I asked him.  
"Yes?"  
"No go, it's probably closed right now."  
"How would you know?" Yamato questioned.  
"Oh, right. Last time we were here, a Tyranomon that hadn't fully crossed over took a pot-shot at the bridge on the Odaiba side. They probably would shut that down trying to figure out what happened." Taichi realized. I pointed a finger at him to say that he was right.  
"How about this? It'll be lunch time when we arrive at Shimbashi so why don't we hop off there, get lunch in the area, and walk to the Kachidoki Bridge that'll lead us south back to Odaiba." I suggested. The others nodded in agreement

"Okay then. In any case, let's get to Nakano-sakaue first." Taichi walked up to the electronic register to get tickets, I handed him some cash for it. Koromon hopped onto the counter.  
"Hey, Taichi! What's that?"  
"A ticket. This is what we use to ride the subway."  
"Subway?" Palmon questioned.  
"What's that?" Patamon asked.  
"Shhhh! Please, don't talk too much in front of other people. This place is different from your world. If anyone catches you talking, they'll raise an uproar!" Jou reminded the other Digimon.  
"Listen, while you're here, you need to pretend to be stuffed animals. You can't move around, okay? I know it'll be tough, but bear with it." Sora added.  
"Okay, I understand. I won't talk or move. It's much easier to be carried around by Sora anyway. Sora~" Pyocomon cheered and squirmed happily in Sora's arms.  
"I just said not to move!"

"Is this a cave?" Koromon questioned as we walked up to the rail waiting for the train.  
"It's a weird cave." Tsunomon observed.  
"Hey, be quiet!" Yamato shushed him. The subway speakers began to crack with sound as it made the familiar chime before the train dispatcher spoke.  
"The train is arriving on time. Please stay behind the white line."  
"Wh-What's that sound?" Koromon asked.  
"Isn't that a Digimon's voice?" Tsunomon added.  
"Look! There's something glowing inside the cave!" Gigimon saw the lights of the train coming.  
"That does it!" declared Tsunomon. "It must be one of Vamdemon's minions!" Both Taichi and Yamato had weak grips on their Digimon which allowed them to easily hop out of their arms down to the rail, while I had a tighter one on Gigimon.  
"Tsunomon!" "Koromon!" Yamato and Taichi shouted in fear. They suddenly screamed as the train ran right at them and passed on through, making it unable for us to see what happened to them! Thankfully, the two had some sort of good bounce as they had hopped on the roof of the train before falling back on the rail.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

After that close call with the train, we quickly boarded it so we could head on back home. I really can't believe I can actually say that! It's been way too long… even if a day hasn't really passed. Oh, I just want to fall asleep on my bed and rest for a week! Of course, we sadly had more important things to deal with, so I doubt I'm going to be able to get much rest in the coming days. We all sat down in the seats, Ross sitting next to me at the far end while Sora was the closest to the door at the other end.

"Stop making me worry, you twit!" Taichi chastised Koromon for his reckless action a few minutes ago. The sound of the train running through the tunnel was being drowned out by the sound a very loud baby crying. A mother was carrying her child in her arms as she walked up next to Sora.  
"There, there. Stop crying and be a good boy." She said to her son. Sora got up and offered her seat.  
"Um, here you go."  
"Oh, thank you. Good boy. You're a good boy, so don't cry." She patted him on the back. The baby suddenly stopped crying when he noticed Pyocomon and her little vines on the top of her head, which he suddenly grabbed and began to yank!

"E-Excuse me…" Sora tried to get the attention of the mother.  
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. Come on." She tried to release his grip on the vine but the kid tugged even harder.  
"That's gotta hurt…" Mochimon muttered. The kid just kept tugging and tugging, it was really painful to watch for all of us. Eventually, Pyocomon just couldn't take it anymore.  
"That hurts! Stop pulling me!" She screamed, drawing the attention of everyone in the railcar. The awkward silence that followed… you could hear a pin drop. We all stared in fear as it looked like we had blown our cover. The baby seemed to get the message and let go of her vine.  
"It talked!" A brown haired kid in a green shirt shouted. "That doll talked!" Everything was silent again until Sora came up with a plan.  
"Oh, that must have hurt! You poor thing! There, there! Play along with whatever I say, okay?" She whispered.  
"M-Mm."  
"But you know, the baby only did that because he likes you, Pyocomon!"  
"Really?" Sora had Pyocomon's mouth covered and she had her own open slightly to make it look like she was speaking for her.  
"Yes, really! So forgive him for what he did, okay?"  
"Okay! I'm sorry for yelling at you." The baby clapped in happiness.

"Oh, that's called ventriloquism. It's really the young lady who's speaking for the doll. Interesting, isn't it?" A man, possibly the green-shirted boy's dad, said.  
"Oh, it's just ventriloquism." "I thought it really talked!" "Of course it wouldn't!" Oh thank goodness, it seems like the crowd bought it.  
"I want one!" The boy shouted once more. Oh, come on! Can't we ever catch a break!? "Dad, I want that doll! Buy it for me, Dad, buy it, c'mon!" Oh, great, the kid's a brat too... wait, was I that bad with my folks?  
"Um, excuse me, miss. Sorry to bother you, but where did you get that?"  
"Wh-Where?" Sora couldn't think of a good explanation. We were all really nervous, this could blow up at any second and we'd have nowhere to escape from the onlookers. "Um…" The train speakers chimed.  
"Nerima. This is Nerima. Please exit to your right." The female voice over the train intercom said as the train slowly came to a halt.  
"The…" Sora looked like she was about to say something. "The Nerima Daikon Department Store!" She lied.  
"Oh, really? Thanks!" He ran out and so did the rest of everyone on the car, the mother with her baby turned to Sora.  
"Thank you very much." She thanked as she left the car leaving us the only ones in it.  
"Goodbye." Pyocomon said.

The doors closed and the train got moving again which Sora sat back down and we all took a respective sigh of relief.  
"That was a close one." Sora muttered.  
"I thought we were goners for a second there." Taichi believed.  
"What's the Nerima Daikon Department Store?" asked Jou.  
"No idea." Sora admitted.  
"I'm tired…" Takeru groaned.  
"Now that my tension's drained, I'm starting to feel sleepy." I informed.  
"Yeah." Yamato agreed.  
"Hey, where are we supposed to get off at again?" Takeru inquired Koushiro.  
"At Nakano-sakaue." He answered.  
"Then at Akasaka-mitsuke." Ross added.  
"Nakano…sakaue… Akasaka… mitsuke…" Takeru muttered. That was the last thing I heard before I drifted to sleep.

"Hey, Mimi-kun." I felt someone shake my shoulder that broke me out of my sleep. I came back to consciousness and slowly opened my eyes to see Ross shaking my shoulder. "Come on, Mimi-kun. This is our stop." He informed. I came back to see he was waking the others as well.  
"Ugh… five more minutes, Mom…" Taichi muttered in his half asleep form.  
"Hurry up, guys! We need to get off here!" He insisted. I looked up to see the station sign reading that we were at Nakano-sakaue. I quickly came awake and so did the others as we got up and walked out before the train took off once more.  
"Wait, were you awake the whole time, Ross-san?" asked Koushiro.  
"Yeah. I didn't feel sleepy. Anyways, let's head to our next line, what was it? The Marunouchi Line?"  
"Uh-huh. We need to get some more tickets."

 _Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 1138 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami__

There was a knock on the door that woke me up from my nap. I slowly got up out of bed, not too fast to make myself dizzy. I noticed that I was feeling much better than before, that must mean that I've almost shook this summer cold off. The knocking was more insistent at the door, and that made me a bit hesitant to open the door.  
"Hello? Yuuko-san? Hikari-chan? It's Takeo! Open up!" That did indeed sounded like Takeo and I opened up the door to see that he was carrying a whole bunch of luggage and bags. "Hi, Hikari-chan. Can you move out of the way? I need to put this all down." I stepped out of his way and he quickly ran to the couch where he put down all the bags. "Ugh, I swear, this is the last favor I do for your brothers."  
"How are you, Takeo-san?"  
"Huh? Oh fine. Just got back from camp. They had to cancel because it snowed."  
"It did?" I had to act surprised because I already knew thanks to Ross and Taichi telling me about what happened at camp, but Takeo I'm positive didn't know.  
"Yeah, it did. We all got sent back home."  
"Was Ross-chan and Onii-chan with you?" He's probably here to say they've gone missing or something; why else is he here with their stuff?  
"For a bit, but they and a few other kids for whatever reason got off at Hikarigaoka." My eyes widened. He saw them! They were back again!

"Hey, you don't mind if I relax here for a few minutes?" He asked he walked over to the dinner table.  
"No, it's fine." I walked over to the refrigerator to get him a drink. When I turned around, he was walking into our room before he came back and I handed him the drink.  
"Thanks. So I heard you were not feeling good?"  
"Yeah, it's just a summer cold, but I'm starting to feeling much better now."  
"Well, you look much better. Anyways, Ross and Taichi went to Hikarigaoka and I had to bring their stuff back, speaking of which…" He opened up Ross's bag that he was carrying the games and he pulled out Super Smash Bros.  
"Does he know you're taking that?"  
"Yeah, he told me not to but you know." I gave him a look. "Oh, don't do that. I'll bring it back in a couple of days." I walked into the hall and opened the doors to let Drew and Miko out.  
"Come on you two, let's go outside." The two animals followed me to the patio door and I opened it up to let them out.  
"Look, Hikari-chan, it was nice to talk to you, but I've gotta get back to my place. I told my mom I'd be home before lunch." He got up and headed for the door. "See you later, Hikari-chan, tell Ross and Taichi I said hi." He waved.  
"Goodbye." I said as he closed the door. So Ross and Taichi are back, but why are they in Hikarigaoka? Did they remember that night that Koromon came to visit?

 _Shimbashi Station, Shinbashi District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1_ _st_ _, 1999. 1243 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido__

After we were woken up back Nakano-sakaue, we transferred over to a few different rails before we finally ended up at Shimbashi Station. We could've easily gotten on the Yurikamome Line but it turned out Ross and Taichi were right as the Rainbow Bridge was close for 'structural inspection and scheduled maintenance', but we knew the truth. We were all currently walking through the crowd and hearing the normal conversations of everyday life.  
"So I heard my line got canceled." "We need to reach that goal for the fourth quarter." "Oh, Ruki, your son Osamu is such a genius!" "Oh, you're too kind." "Did you catch the game yesterday?"

"Hey, Taichi? I'm hungry…" Koromon muttered.  
"Me, too…" "So am I." Tsunomon and Palmon chimed in.  
"Well, hang on for a few more minutes. We'll get lunch in a moment." Taichi informed.  
"I want to eat a hamburger." Mimi moaned in hunger. We all stopped when she said that.  
"A hamburger, huh…" Sora thought.  
"I feel like I haven't eaten that in a while." Yamato said.  
"Well, I think there's a McDonald's on the corner, it's the closest place I can think of that has hamburgers." Ross told us.  
"Well, then, let's go over there then! I'm starving!" Taichi cheered.  
"Uh, excuse me?" Koushiro interrupted. "I need to use the restroom, could one of you stay with me? I feel more comfortable if not everyone leaves me behind."  
"All right, I'll come with you, Koushiro." I offered. "I've actually got to use it too." We walked towards the bathrooms while the others headed for the nearby McDonald's where we'd meet up with them.

After using the bathroom and washing our hands, we walked back out in to the station and tried to find our way out onto streets.  
"So, where do we go from here, again?" I asked.  
"We walk south across the Kachidoki Bridge to reach the waterfront, Jou-san." Koushiro explained. "That should led us towards Big Sight and then I think we easily know where our homes are from there."  
"But that's like a six and half kilometer walk!" I complained.  
"We've walked further than that in a day back in the Digital World." He reminded me.  
"Yeah, but we didn't have any other methods of transportation to do travel there."  
"Well, the direct route to Odaiba is closed so we have no choice but to take the long way around. Besides, it would give us more time to talk about what we do next."  
"Oh, right. Finding the ninth child."  
"We'll find him before Vamdemon." Mochimon promised.  
"Yeah, don't worry yourself too much, Jou." Gomamon insisted.  
"Ugh, that just makes me more worried. And stop talking in public, you two!"

"Alright, now how exactly do we get out of this place?" I looked around. "This station is like a maze."  
"There are too many people much taller than me, so I can't see too well."  
"Should we use the Digivice to reach the others faster?" I suggested.  
"I don't think that will be necessary. All we need to do is find our way out then meet them at the restaurant. To be honest, I've been checking it and it really hasn't been reacting, which was odd because it was working back in the Digimon's world.  
"Maybe it broke when we got here."  
"That can't be…" We started walked through the station once again. We walked right past this woman in an outfit that was handing out some free samples to some sort of food or candy.  
"Here you are!" She handed me the sample that was in a plastic wrapper, unfortunately, she positioned it right by Gomamon's mouth and he bit it right out of her hands! She shouted in surprise before staring at him. Not good! Maybe I can pass him off as a real ugly looking dog.  
"Bad dog! Bad dog!" I claimed as both Koushiro and I ran away from her.

We managed to find our way out of the station and we were now back on the streets of Tokyo. The sun was kinda blinding but it was bright in the afternoon and we'd been underground for some time. We came across a crosswalk and saw on the other corner was the restaurant and looking inside through the windows, we could see the others were already eating.  
"There they are." I pointed out to Koushiro and we waited at the signal for it to turn green and let us cross. We walked past two guys that were carrying a large painting when we started to cross the street. Once across, I turned back around to see what kind of picture they had and it looked like a painting of the Fuji Television building. Also right near those guys was the very large man in trench coat and a hat. In this weather? Eh, whatever.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"Delicious!" Taichi exclaimed as he took another bit of his hamburger.  
"This is so good!" Mimi cried.  
"It's been too long since we've had normal food!" informed Ross.  
"I almost forgot what this tasted like!" I admitted. The Digimon also looked like they liked it too.  
"This is so not fair, Yamato! You get to eat this tasty stuff every day!" envied Tsunomon.  
"Be a little quieter while you're eating. What if the other customers see you?" Yamato reminded that we were in a public place.  
"No one is paying any attention to us, though." Mimi looked over to the rest of the restaurant.  
"It's Jou-san and Koushiro-san!" Takeru saw the two of them approaching our table with some food.  
"Move over, guys." Jou requested as they sat at our crowed table and began eating their food as well. Koushiro had pulled out his Digivice and looked at it funny.  
"Huh? The Digivice is reacting."  
"It's because we're all here, isn't it?" I asked.  
"No, I mean, when I looked at it earlier, it wasn't reacting at all."  
"That's odd…" I took another sip of my drink.  
"Maybe it only works for short distances in this world."

"Well, if that's the case, then that's going to make it harder to find this ninth child." worried Yamato.  
"Speaking of the ninth child, I was wondering, what we do next?" Taichi questioned. We all looked at him before we quickly realized what he meant.  
"Oh, that's right. We never really thought about what we do next once we find the child." I said.  
"If we find this kid first, there's still the problem with where this kid's Tag and Crest is and more importantly, where is their partner Digimon?" Ross theorized.  
"This is all so confusing…" Mimi muttered.  
"We also need to discuss a plan about how we deal with Vamdemon." Jou reminded.  
"Well, I suppose right now, we just deal with Vamdemon the way we did with Mammon. Anytime we run into any of Vamdemon's servants, we need to defeat them." Koushiro gave us his answer.  
"Yeah, everyone we destroy means one less to help Vamdemon, since he's not getting reinforcements thanks to us destroying his castle." Ross brought up.  
"Hey, considering Vamdemon's army, do you think that maybe the ninth Digimon is also with them, like a double agent or something?" Taichi gave out an idea.  
"It's possible, the Digimon might also have a Tag and Crest with them." Koushiro thought.  
"Look, how's about we worry about we do a few steps from now, and just focus on going home and finding the child." I told the others. We really were thinking too far ahead.

On the TV, we saw that the local news had come on with a special news bulletin; we all knew what was going to be said.  
"We interrupt this broadcast for some important news. There was a bombing in the Nerima district a few hours ago near the housing complexes in Hikarigaoka. This may have been responsible for putting telephones, wires, and optical cables in Hikarigaoka into temporary disservice. Preliminary investigations are currently underway in the local area. I will read off a statement by the Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. It reads as follows 'At around 10:45 this morning, there was a bombing in the Nerima district around Hikarigaoka. Police units responded to the scene fast to deal with the crisis. Some may know that this is not the first time this area has suffered a bombing as there was one as well four years ago. I'm pleased to report that thankfully, just like the last bombing, there were no reported casualties. However, we must note that there are some unconfirmed reports from witnesses that have insisted that an elephant and a large bird were in the area during the bombing. We are medically treating these witnesses currently as we believe they may have hallucinated, adding to our worries that the bombs may have been chemical in nature. We suspect that this incident might be related with the one four years ago but we have no solid leads right now. We are dedicating our full resources to try to discover how and why this bombing happened and we will alert the public with any additional info, thank you.' We here on Channel 5 will bring you updates if anything is uncovered." The reporter said. We all looked at each other nervously and could hear the rest of the conversations in the restaurant.  
"Another attack?" "Same area too?" "Bird and elephant?" "Do you think those were chemical weapons?" "How were there no casualties?" "Someone must have seen something suspicious." We all went back to eating, but this time without saying a word.

After we finished eating, we headed back on our way to Odaiba. It was about a minute or so after two when we could be able to see Kachidoki Bridge. During the time we were walking, we found ourselves talking less about how to find the ninth child and dealing with Vamdemon and more of just talking in general like we were normal kids.  
"No, no, no! '96 Japan Series MVP Troy Neel played for the Oakland Athletics, not the San Francisco Giants." Ross claimed. He and Yamato were getting into an argument about baseball that was getting pretty loud."  
"Well, I know one American Japan Series MVP played for the Giants, was that O'Malley in '95?"  
"I think so, hell, I'm not that sure. Taichi's dad would know, that guy's a baseball encyclopedia." I had to smile at their discussion, the way they were talking, it almost felt like we didn't have the fate of two worlds on our shoulder.  
"Hey, is this our bridge?" Jou asked pointing ahead.  
"Yes, that should be the Kachidoki Bridge." Koushiro informed.  
"It looks like they're doing some work on it; some of the side barriers are missing on the walkways." Mimi observed.  
"It's fine! We just simply walk across it and then we're just a few steps from Odiaba!" decided Taichi. We all shrugged and decided that it probably would be fine to cross the bridge; after all we weren't the only ones who were walking it.

 _P.O.V – Third Person_

PicoDevimon was continuing up the patrol and search for the ninth child during the afternoon by sitting on the back rail of one of the local transport vessels that was travelling the bay.  
"I'm always getting beaten and shouted at by Vamdemon-sama." The bat was talking to himself. "Things won't look up unless I accomplish something soon. But… Just where could that kid be?" He decided to use the ship to look around one of the dock areas; a bit of a long shot, but with how large the city was, maybe he'd find a clue or something. He was very insistent of finding the child first before Tailmon. Finding the kid would permanently cement himself as his master's right hand.

Meanwhile, the children were quietly walking across the bridge even with some of the work that was being done on it. They could see a wide range of people walking it ranging from a business man talking on his cell phone, a mother with her child in a stroller, to two boys with raven-colored hair that looked right around their own age group. The Chosen Children kept on their way until they stopped after hearing a strange noise.  
"What was that?" Takeru asked.  
"Was that what I think that was?" Palmon questioned. Suddenly the whole bridge began to shake as if something had rammed right into it and cause all of them to lose our balance, especially Koushiro who fell over the missing part of the bridge's guard wall.  
"Koushiro!" Taichi shouted to the boy's screams.  
"Koushiro-han! Mochimon, evolve! TENTOMON!" The mechanized lady-bug flew into action and managed to grab Koushiro before he could fall and drown in the bay waters.  
"Tentomon!"  
"You're heavy…" Tentomon was somewhat struggling to pull him back up.

However, trying to pull up Koushiro was the least of their problems as a large white mass swam below them.  
"Th-That's…" Koushiro stuttered. The object exploded out of the water revealing a giant squid like Digimon.  
"It's Gesomon!" Tentomon yelled.  
"Gesomon?!"  
"He's a Mollusk-type Adult-Level Virus Digimon! His special attack, Deadly Shade, paralyzes his enemies!"  
"Leave the ocean Digimon to me!" Gomamon declared as he jumped through the bridge wall opening and dived towards the giant squid. "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!" Ikkakumon jumped right in front of Gesomon and Tentomon used the distraction to carry Koushiro to safety. The two Adult-Level Digimon soon began to throw all sorts of strikes on one another in their savage fight. Ikkakumon soon had an opening and took his chance. "Harpoon Vulcan!" The missile struck the squid in the face and cause serious damage but the mollusk refused to roll over and die.

"Senpai, look at that!" "Are they monsters? No way!" "Dad, take out the camcorder! Hurry!" "They're pretty well made!" "Do you think they're real?" "No way! It must be for some kind of event." The kids soon discovered they were drawing quite the crowd around them and used the fight as an opportunity to sneak away from the onlookers. Up in a diner that overlooked the bridge there were some local high school girls talking with each other.  
"It seriously annoys me!"  
"Eh? What's that?"  
"Oh wow, they're so cute!" Both girls quickly turned and looked at their friend with odd expressions. A guy near a vending machine was walking over to a bench another man was sitting with his back turned to the fight while the man standing was staring at the fight.  
"What's wrong?" The sitting man asked.  
"Ah, I'm done for." The other man could barely care about the monsters at this point in the afternoon as he took a large sip of his drink.

Ikkakumon and Gesomon continued to fight with each other, with neither wanting to give ground. Ikkakumon then jumped onto Gesomon and the two of them disappeared under the water. The only thing that remained was a strange yellow and pink object that floated away from where the creatures were, to the confusion of the onlookers.  
"Onii-chan? What was that?"  
"To be honest, Ken… I have no earthly idea."

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We used the distraction Ikkakumon made by destroying Gesomon to escape the crowd and were now riding on him or some logs we tied to him and sailed straight towards the Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba.  
"We kind of drew a big crowd back there." Yamato said.  
"It couldn't be helped. Gesomon started it by ramming the bridge. Besides, it'll all work out." Taichi waved off his concerns.  
"This will be a much faster way to get home. I think we might even make it before three o'clock." I told the others. I could see the smiles on some of the faces of the others with that sentence. Jou, who was sitting on top of Ikkakumon's head, pointed forward.  
"Set out, Ikkakumon… towards Odaiba!" Jou shouted. With our hopes held high now, we finally sailed the final part of our journey to the destination we longed for. The journey of going home was finally at an end.

Now, our attention would have to be drawn back to the threat that resided in the city…

* * *

And that was Chapter 31. I hope I didn't lose some of you at some points.

That conversation that Ross and Yamato have about baseball is actually based off the dialogue that some airborne troopers had at the start of the third mission, Carentan, from Company of Heroes:  
"I'm telling ya, Yankees and Cubs, Game One, Thirty-Eight World Series. Lefty Gomez was the winning pitcher!"  
"Hey Lewis, aren't you a lefty too? Heh heh."  
"So, who do you think it was?"  
"I don't know. Ruffing, maybe?" (Red Ruffing was the winning pitcher of Game 1, Lefty Gomez was the winning pitcher of Game 2. Thank you, Wikipedia.)  
"Oh, great. I love a man with conviction."  
"Well, hell! I don't know! My kid brother would though. He's a damned baseball encyclopedia."  
"I guess being dull runs in the family!"

Anyways, that's the end of this chapter, I'll see all you guys on the 10th. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	33. Raremon! Attack in Tokyo Bay!

Chapter 32, this train just keeps chugging along before the 20th.

Shoutout to **LightDusk16** for the follow.

Nothing much to say, so let's move along.

* * *

 **Chapter 32: Raremon! Attack in Tokyo Bay!**

 _Hikarigaoka District, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 1447 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

"What?" Vamdemon questioned PicoDevimon's report in his temporary base in Hikarigaoka. "Not only Mammon, but even Gesomon was killed?"  
"Yes." PicoDevimon informed through a bat communicator, it was one of Vamdemon's bats that replaced its face with a screen to serve as a communication device. PicoDevimon gave out his report with a smile on his face. "Really, the troops that Tailmon brought with her are all useless!" He bragged, using this as an opportunity to make a power play as Vamdemon's right hand. He had to laugh at it all.  
"What's so funny?"  
"N-Nothing at all, sir!"  
"Good, I hope not. In any case, keep searching! Find the ninth child!" Vamdemon ordered.  
"Y-Yes, sir! Understood!" He grabbed the communicator and took off for Daiba Park by the Rainbow Bridge. While he was ordered to find the child, he was also on the lookout for a place for a more permanent base for his master, and where better than one right by where the Chosen Children lived?

Right nearby, the others had begun to go their separate ways to their homes after Ikkakumon landed them at Odaiba Beach. Ross and Taichi were slowly making their way back towards Taichi's apartment when Koromon started talking.  
"I wonder if Hikari-chan's gotten over her cold yet."  
"Maybe." Gigimon answered. "She seemed like she was doing well when we saw her earlier in the day."  
"You know, guys, I've been thinking." Taichi spoke up. "When we came back here earlier, Hikari remembered what happened four years ago."  
"Yeah, and we forgot, especially you since you were really at the heart of it all." Ross pointed out.  
"I really don't know why I ended up repressing it. But that doesn't matter now, what matters now is with that, you don't think she's the ninth child, do you?" The others eyes widened.  
"I sure hope not. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to find this kid fast but…"  
"But what?"  
"Taichi, this whole thing is already hitting close to home. Truly, I hope this kid is someone we really don't know. Be honest, how would you feel knowing that the ninth child was Hikari, and Vamdemon wanted her dead?" The goggle-wearing boy hesitated to speak for a moment before he finally said something.  
"It'd be the worst feeling in the world.

"Here you go, Miko!" Hikari placed a saucer of milk on the floor in her and Taichi's room. She already filled Drew's food and water bowls in Ross' room. She watched the cat lap up the milk before they heard the door open.  
"We're home!" She heard her mother say.  
"We're back!" That was her father's voice. Both her parents were home early from visiting their grandparents.  
"Welcome back, Mom and Dad!" Hikari called out before walking towards the living room. At the same time, Miko was about to drink some more milk before she noticed something under the bed. It was another Digivice. When he arrived earlier at the apartment, Takeo was the first one to notice the Digivice that was sitting on the table and assumed it was some kind of toy like the others had claimed on the bus earlier and took it to Taichi and Hikari's room. He had placed the Digivice on the bed, but on the edge that shortly fell on the floor and under the bed as soon as he left the room. And now Miko's attention was now fully focused on the strange object.

"How was Grandma?" Hikari asked her father, referencing to their earlier phone call that her grandmother had hurt herself.  
"Nothing serious. She said she fell while walking down a slope and sprained her ankle a little." He informed as he opened the fridge to grab a drink, a coke, not a beer; if it was the light stuff, it was still too early to drink it. He'd given up drinking the harder stuff a while back when Yuuko kept complaining that he was coming home late incredibly wasted. "She went to the hospital to have it checked just in case, and she'll be out in two or three days. Grandpa went with her, so that's why we're home early."  
"That's great! Here!" She handed her dad a glass for his drink.  
"Thank you!" He took the glass and began filling it with soda. At the same time, the patio door was slightly open and Miko took the Digivice she held in her mouth outside.

"Your Grandparents were more worried about you cold, Hikari." Yuuko said as she began to put on her kitchen apron as she was planning to make dinner in the next few hours.  
"I think my cold is gone now." Hikari explained.  
"Oh? Let's see." Susumu put his hand on his daughter's forehead to check to see if she was still running a fever. "Your fever's gone down." Meanwhile, Miko was swatting at the Digivice until she took one good swing that knocked the Digivice through the railings and down to the garden below. The cat's eyes were wide and she sweat dropped. In her mind, she was in trouble.

"We're home!" Taichi announced as he and Ross walked through the door.  
"Taichi! Ross!" Yuuko walked up to them. "Shouldn't you two be in camp?" She asked as Miko bolted out the door.  
"O-Oh, it got cancelled because of the snow."  
"Snow?"  
"Yeah, we got pelted by a blizzard!" Ross said.  
"Really, I wonder what's wrong with the weather we've been having lately. What's that?" She noticed the two Digimon.  
"T-They're souvenirs for Hikari!" claimed Taichi.  
"I see. That's very thoughtful of the both of you." Taichi couldn't control his emotions and just ran up to his mother and hugged her. "Taichi?"  
"Mom…"  
"Wh-What's this all of a sudden?"

"What's wrong?" Susumu asked as he and Hikari walked up.  
"Dad!" Taichi did the same thing to his father and hugged him as well. Both this parents looked confused.  
"Hey, wait a second, where is the rest of your things?" asked Yuuko.  
"Oh, well, Takeo dropped that off earlier. See, Taichi and I were feeling kind of nostalgic so we kinda asked to be dropped off at Hikarigaoka." Ross explained. The Yagami's eyes widened.  
"Hikarigaoka?!" They shouted.  
"Don't worry; we were on the rail line leaving the area when apparently all hell broke loose. That was just a nasty coincidence with everything, and well, I guess the fact we had a close call just kinda got to him." Both of the parents sighed in relief.  
"Well, there was no way you guys could've known, but next time, please give us a good, long heads up before you do something like this." Mr. Yagami advised as both boys nodded their heads. Outside the apartment, Miko was looking for the Digivice in the bushes around the apartment when another cat popped out of them with the Digivice in its mouth and bolted, making Miko give chase.

At the Isumi residence over at a different apartment building, Koushiro's mother, Izumi Kae, was currently on the phone talking with a friend of hers who was the mother to two rowdy children.  
"Yes, that's true." She agreed with what had been said.  
"In any case, your Koushiro is such a smart and polite boy. I'm so jealous of you." The other woman envied.  
"Oh, my."  
"Compared to him, my little brats are picky and all they ever do is act selfishly."  
"That's mine!" A younger voice yelled over the phone before a slap was heard and the sound of a child crying filled the line.  
"Hey! Mizuki, don't hit your little brother!"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I walked up to the door to my apartment, but made sure that Tentomon was out of sight as I was going to sneak him in through my bedroom window. If he was Mochimon still, I could've easily passed him off as a stuffed animal, but a giant mechanized looking ladybug? That would raise too many questions, which reminds me, I need to get a few things as a precaution in the next few hours. I opened up the door to see my mom currently on the phone.  
"I'm home!" I announced to her.  
"Oh." She responded to my sudden appearance.  
"Camp got cancelled." I said as I took off my shoes.  
"Is that so?"  
"I'm sorry for worrying you." I bowed as I heard some sort of whack over the phone before there was some crying. Sounds like the Suzuki's again. I left her to continue her conversation as I opened the door to my room before closing it.

I walked over to the window, opened it and saw Tentomon hiding in the bushes below. I softly whistled at him to get his attention and motioned him to come on up which he quickly flew in.  
"Koushiro?" I heard Mom call.  
"Y-Yes?" I quickly moved Tentomon to hide him in the closet.  
"Is something the matter?"  
"Nothing at all!" I heard her footsteps walk away from the door and went over to my coin jar to get some money for what I needed to buy before I got what I assumed was enough money before leaving my room. "I'm heading to Taichi-san's house for a bit!" I told Mom as she was in the kitchen working on dinner for later tonight.  
"Now? But you just got back."  
"I need one of his reference books, so I'll be right back!" I went downstairs to get my bike and ride over to the nearest store that would sell door locks.

After a few hours, somewhere around 5:30, I finally came back home. I got held up because I was trying to find the right store which surprisingly took a while.  
"I'm home!" I called as I opened the door, I could see Mom tasting her cooking as dinner was almost ready. The TV was on as well, looks like they were talking about sports, but I just know they were talking about the Digimon beforehand.  
"Welcome back!" Mom said as I walked into my room to install the bolt lock on my bedroom door. After a few minutes, I got it all installed properly and it locked perfectly.  
"I really didn't want to do this…" I said aloud to Tentomon.  
"Then why did you?"  
"There will be trouble if my parents find you in here while I'm gone."  
"That's true… By the way!"  
"What?"  
"Some nice smells have been coming from outside ever since we got here. Your mother must be making something delicious for you. She must be a very nice mother!" I could only smile at what he said.  
"Yeah. She's a really good mom! But…" My mind drifted back to that night.

 _Izumi Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. November 17_ _th_ _, 1998. 2207 Hours._

I stood outside the door to the living room and heard the conversation Mom and Dad were having.  
"Dear, when are we going to tell him the truth?" Mom asked.  
"Let's wait a little longer. Just a little longer. It'll be too much of a shock to Koushiro right now."  
"But maybe he already knows… that he's not our real son… That he's adopted…" Those words made me feel like I had been shot in the chest. I'm… adopted…? I almost fell backwards from shock due to those words and went back to my room.  
"Did something happen?"  
"Nothing specific, but it's just my intuition…"

 _Izumi Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 1736 Hours._

"But what?" Tentomon said, bringing me back to reality.  
"No, it's nothing." I dismissed. There was a knock at the door.  
"Koushiro?" Mom called.  
"Y-Yes?"  
"Time for dinner. Your father is already eating." Oh, he's home already?  
"I'll be right there!"  
"By the way, do you have a friend over?" Both mine and Tentomon's eyes nearly popped out. Oh, shoot! Were we that loud? "Maybe I'm hearing things… I thought I heard someone else's voice in your room." Quick! Time to think of an excuse! Got it!  
"I-I was practicing manzai!" Manzai is a Japanese form of stand-up comedy between two performers. They often speak in a Kansai dialect, which is the same accent that Tentomon has. "There's an entertainment contest approaching at school!"  
"Manzai?" Oh, I just know Mom and Dad are going to want a performance; this is going to crash and burn so hard.

Sure enough, I was right as they asked for a performance. Well, I'm in it already so I might as well keep the charade up.  
"When I scared the old man at the fish store, guess what he shouted? Oh? What did he say? 'Gyo!'" Gyo is both and exclamation of surprise and the word 'Fish'. "Don't be silly!" I stopped as that was all I got. My parents just stared. "I'm sorry it wasn't that funny…"  
"Th-That's not true at all!" Dad claimed.  
"It was very funny!" Mom said.  
"It was the best I've ever heard! The best!"  
"Really!" They both clapped. Wait, they bought it? Either I'm actually good at this, or they're just being nice. Either way, they don't suspect Tentomon which is the important thing.  
"I never would have though you would take up manzai!"  
"You sure surprised me!"  
"I'm sorry." I apologized.  
"Hey, there's no need to apologize." My dad claimed.  
"Yes, it's a happy kind of surprise." Mom assured.  
"O-Okay." I quickly thought back to Tentomon who was probably sitting in my closet very hungry.

"Um… could I eat the rest of my dinner in my room?" I requested.  
"I won't mind if you leave whatever you hate on your plate." Mom said. I felt pretty guilty with that suggestion.  
"N-No, I don't hate it all! I love everything you make, Mom!"  
"Oh…" She nodded to answer my request.  
"Thank you, Mom! I'm really grateful for everything you do!" I took the food back to my room, opened the closet door to let Tentomon out and handed him the plate. I sat and watched as Tentomon stuffed his face with my mother's food. He clearly liked it, but then again, we really haven't found any kind of food the Digimon wouldn't eat.  
"Koushiro-han, you look really happy about something."  
"Really?"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Koushiro thanked me…" Kae muttered before she placed her hands in her face. "He said, 'Thank you, Mom'…"  
"Isn't that great?" Izumi Masami questioned, unaware of what was going on through his wife's mind. The reasoning was that Kae had a feeling that there was more with Koushiro then they thought, perhaps he finally figured the secret they kept from him. At the same time, things were not looking too great for Miko. She had pursued the other cat with the Digivice to the back of a truck. The other cat let go of the Digivice and hopped out, ceding the device to Miko. However, before she could get out and return home, the Mach-Speed Postal Service truck had its rear door closed before she could escape and had now been stuck in it for a few hours now.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Both Ross and I were looking kinda of suspicious with all the food we were eating around dinner but it really had been way too long since we had eaten any sort of home cooking. Almost felt like we didn't have to worry about the Digimon. Mom was just sitting at the table with us and staring at us as we chowed down the tempura shrimp and rice.  
"Oh, I left the bathwater running." She remembered and walked away. Meanwhile, Hikari and Dad were watching and laughing at a rerun of a favorite show in our house, especially since it was Ross' all-time favorite show.  
 _"Let's run out and we'll shout the worst… the most terrifying battle cry these guys have ever heard!"  
"I'm with ya!"  
"Alright, here we go! SHUT UP AND TOUCH THE MONKEY! AHHHHHH!"  
_ _"We'll be right back with more Whose Line right after this, don't go anywhere!"_ With Mom gone, Ross and I took the time to sneak some food to our Digimon that were sitting in the empty chair.  
"More please!" We asked.  
"What's going on here? This is three times more than you usually eat!" Mom questioned.  
"I haven't tasted anything so good in a long time!" Stupid! That was the wrong thing to say!  
"The camp food was terrible and we just wanted to get rid of that taste." Ross covered.  
"Enough with the flattery, you two, especially you, Taichi. Don't think I'll raise your allowance because of a few compliments."

After dinner, we went back to my room to discuss things with Hikari.  
"Why were you crying back then?" Koromon asked about my sudden outburst when we got home.  
"Not telling." I told him.  
"Onii-chan, Ross-chan, have you got everything taken care of?"  
"No, not yet. We've got some things to tell you, but I'm afraid that things are going to get a bit hectic for the next few weeks." Hikari looked downtrodden by that answer. "Hey! Don't worry. We don't have to go back, if that's what you're thinking; this is all something we can do here. By the way, Hikari, do you remember what happened at Hikarigaoka four years ago?"  
"Koromon got bigger and fought with a huge bird, right? They claimed it was a bombing, and Koromon vanished after that."  
"If by got bigger, you mean evolve? Then yeah, that's probably what happened. I'd like to mention that Koromon you met isn't the same one you see before you." Gigimon said.  
"Yeah, I don't remember ever coming here until earlier today." Koromon told her.  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know." Hikari apologized. "You don't remember that night, Onii-chan?" I hesitated to answer that.

"Yeah, our group suddenly remembered that night when we were in Hikarigaoka earlier today. Apparently, the thing that connected all of us Chosen Children was that we all witnessed that fight."  
"Hey, Hikari-chan? You don't have a Digivice, do you?" Koromon asked.  
"Digivice?" She questioned.  
"Let us explain. There was apparently supposed to be a ninth Chosen Child with us, but for whatever reason, never showed. We've come back to try to find them. The only clues we have is that they lived at Hikarigaoka and saw the fight, and then moved away to somewhere else in the city." I explained.  
"And we're not the only ones. An evil Vampire Digimon named Vamdemon has gathered an army and invaded Tokyo in an effort to find and kill this kid. Those attacks at Hikarigaoka and the bridge earlier today was kinda us. He has his followers searching all over this city and we ran into a few of them, hence the fights. We just couldn't let them run amok and hurt people." Ross continued. Hikari nodded in understanding.

"So what does this have to do with me?" asked Hikari.  
"You were living in Hikarigaoka and were a witness to the fight. You also weren't with us at camp, so, that's why we think you maybe the child. Of course, the ninth child would have a Digivice with them." I pulled out mine and Ross got his and we showed them to her. "These are Digivices, do they look familiar?" She stared at them for a moment.  
"No, they don't. I don't have one." She informed. Both Ross and I looked at each other before we had a sigh of relief. Thank god. Well, at least Vamdemon isn't coming for Hikari. Still, it would've been kind of nice to have an advantage on that fanged freak, but we still can find that kid before him.  
"Well, of course not." I laughed.  
"Back to square one, I'm afraid." Ross groaned.

"Taichi, I'm sleepy." Koromon yawned.  
"Me too." Gigimon added.  
"You two can sleep here. We still have somethings we need to discuss." Ross reminded.  
"Good night." Both Digimon said as we tucked them into my bed. Ross could carry Gigimon to his room later.  
"Hey, wait a minute, where's Miko?" Hikari wondered.  
"I think I saw her bolt out the door earlier." I told her. "Don't worry. She'll be back and she still has her collar and tags if someone finds her." I assured. "Now, wasn't there something you wanted to tell Hikari that you already told me at Gennai's, Ross?" Ross nodded and proceeded to come clean with his depression with Hikari, but I honestly felt that the conversation was probably going to be the same as it was last night.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

A few hours later out in the bay by the Rainbow Bridge, there was a dark presence lurking in the waters below. At the same time, the truck carrying Miko was now crossing over it and the Digivice was starting to beep. The creature that was under the bridge had noticed that the fake Crest it had been given to help find the ninth child began to glow pink. It suddenly turned course and began heading straight towards the direction of the truck. The creature was on direct course for one of the passenger transports that crossed the bay and the driver of the ship was soon beginning to get electronic failures.  
"Huh? What's happening?" She questioned. Her answer came in the form of two large eyes, a large sharp mouth and a grey slimy body swimming right towards her. She screamed as she turned the ship only for the monster to tip the whole boat over. Thankfully, there were no passengers at that moment and she was able to escape before she could be dragged under.

At a nearby club by the docks known as Club Poseidon, it was a typical night for the crowd. PicoDevimon was hanging off a pole behind one of the back doors, trying to think of his next move.  
"How can I find the ninth kid when I don't even know where…?" He was interrupted when his Crest soon began to glow. "Huh? He's close by! Here's my chance to prove myself!" He flew off in hope of finding the child. The truck carrying Miko finally parked in the docks before the driver walked away, leaving the poor cat still stuck inside.

 _Izumi Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 2032 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi__

"I'm stuffed…" Tentomon muttered as he was lying on the floor. I was still awake as I was trying to figure out any way to help us defeat Vamdemon and find the ninth child. I remembered that Gennai had added some programs on my computer so I pulled it out to take a look. Maybe something there can help.  
"Gennai-san added a lot of different programs in this… Let's see." I moved my mouse onto a program named 'Kankan'. I clicked it and got a Yukidarumon, a Monzaemon, and a Numemon in dresses doing the 'Cancan'. "Th-That's it?" I said as I closed it out. "Then how about this…?" I clicked on 'Balloon' and got a Chuumon inflating a balloon before it exploded. I put my hand to my face. "I don't need this! What else?" I clicked on a program called 'Radar' and got a map of the bay. "It's a map of Tokyo!" Well, he added at least something useful. I noticed a blinking red dot on the screen, in comparison to the map; it looked like it was right by the Rainbow Bridge. "Huh? What's this?" I clicked it and it zoomed in with a closer map, indicating that it was the Bridge. There was a tiny 'Chibi' Gennai on the corner of the screen waving his arms.  
"There's trouble! An unidentified Digimon has landed on Shibaura!" It said in a very high pitched voice.  
"What?!"

This is not good! Whatever minion Vamdemon has in that area needs to be destroyed as fast as possible. I need to call for help. Let's see. I pulled up my school phonebook and started to dial numbers as fast as I could.  
"Is this the Yagami residence? This is Izumi. Is Taichi-san and Ross-san home?"  
"They are, but…" Ms. Yagami answered. "Want me to wake them up?" Oh, great, they're asleep.  
"No, that's okay. I'm sorry for disturbing you." I ended the call and dialed the next number. "I'm sorry for such a late-night call. Is Sora-san there?" I got the same answer from Sora's mom. Next. "Is Yamato-san home?" Nope, asleep. "Thank you." I ended the call. I could call Mimi and Jou but I fear the answer would also be the same.

"Is something wrong?" Tentomon asked.  
"An unknown Digimon has surface on Shibaura. I've tried contacting Taichi-san and the others, but everyone is sleeping…"  
"They're all tired from what happened earlier this afternoon."  
"We'll just have to go ourselves!"  
"Yeah! No matter who our opponent is, I'm sure we can handle them alone!" I nodded. We quickly snuck out of the apartment through the window. I had Tentomon wear a rain poncho to hopefully not draw too much attention to him. We ran out to the street and I hailed down a taxi. We got in and told the driver to go to Shibaura. Hopefully, we would not be too late.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The attacking monster in Shibaura had just torn up Club Poseidon on its way to find the ninth child. Amazingly, even though it crushed the whole front of the building, there were no fatalities, or even major injuries; just a few cuts and bruises when the club patrons were fleeing out the back. After that, the Digimon turned its attention to some loading docks where it managed to find the truck that Miko was trapped it. It vomited up an acidic attack on the front of the truck before picking it up in its arms and shaking it, knocking the door open and freeing Miko who fled with the Digivice in her mouth. The Digimon saw the Digivice in her mouth and pursued right after her.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

As we finally reached the docks of Shibaura, we finally got glimpse of the attacking Digimon and that is a ghastly looking thing!  
"Wh-Who is that?" Tentomon questioned. I pulled up my laptop to analyze the beast.  
"It's called Raremon! An Adult-Level Undead Digimon who failed trying to reinforce its decaying body with metal! Its special attack is Hedoro!" Suddenly, I heard a familiar beeping on the Digivice.  
"What's wrong?"  
"The ninth child is around here!"  
"That's big news! If we lose him now, we won't know when we'll find him next!" Tentomon threw his poncho over to me. "I'll do something about Raremon! Go look for the ninth child, Koushiro-han!"  
"Is that all right with you?"  
"We have no other choice!"  
"Okay then! I'm counting on you!"  
"Okay! Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!"  
"All right. Now it's my turn!" I said as Kabuterimon took off to deal with Raremon, leaving me free to find the ninth child. What he was doing out here at this hour is beyond me, but I'll ask him when I see him.

"Mega Blaster!" Kabuterimon had flow around the rotting Digimon to try to strike it in its back. Raremon quickly turned and upchucked a sickly green liquid that made contact with the Blaster and caused a large explosion. I looked at my Digivice and saw the signal going further away before vanishing.  
"It disappeared." I muttered to myself. Darn it. It suddenly showed up on the screen again, even closer! "No… it's moving! This way!" I ran towards the signals direction.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After putting the Digimon to bed, we talked with Hikari about both our journeys as well as my depression. Man, I really should've said something about that earlier, because while Hikari basically said the same thing Taichi did yesterday, she somehow put it in words that somehow really hit it home. I was still depressed, of course, but now, I think I can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel that hadn't been there for a while. All I really need to do was finally see Dad again and then I'll see where I am then. After all the talking, both Taichi and I got tired and headed to bed.

It was around ten at night when I got up and walked over to the bathroom. Gigimon was in my bed and Drew was in his kennel, both sleeping soundly. I just finished in the bathroom when Yuuko walked over to me.  
"Ross, listen, one of your friends called for you and Taichi while you were asleep."  
"Who?"  
"Koushiro, I think was his name. I was just about to wake up Taichi to tell him."  
"Well, let me come with." We walked into the bedroom to see Taichi still asleep while Hikari was still awake. Yuuko began shaking Taichi's shoulder to get him to wake up.  
"Taichi. Taichi."  
"Wh-What?" He asked.  
"I just received a call from Koushiro-kun. He sounded a bit odd." Taichi's eyes widened a bit before he looked at me before looking back his mom.  
"What did he say?"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Hello, Izumi residence." Ms. Izumi answered the phone.  
"Hello, this is Yagami Taichi." Taichi was on the phone with Ross right next to him.  
"Oh, Taichi-kun? Thank you and Ross-kun for watching over Koushiro-kun during camp. Also, thank you for lending him your reference book."  
"Reference book?" Ross gave a 'What?' look to Taichi when he said that. "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken. Anyways, just tell him Ross and Taichi tried to call him back. Goodbye." He hung up. "Reference book?" Taichi questioned aloud. Kae was confused with the call and decided to check up on Koushiro. She knocked on his bed room door.  
"Koushiro? Are you asleep, Koushiro?"  
"He must be tired from camp." Masami assumed. "We should let him sleep."  
"Okay. I'll just gather his dishes for washing then." She tried to open the door but came to discover that it was locked. "Dear!"

Down at the docks, Raremon had fled back into the water where Kabuterimon was patrolling from up above the water. At the same time, both Koushiro and PicoDevimon were on the trail for the ninth child, unaware that they were only chasing Miko.  
"The eight child… He's close!" Koushiro said.  
"Where is he?" PicoDevimon questioned further away from the red-headed boy. Flying above the water left Kabuterimon vulnerable as he didn't have any idea where Raremon was. This played in the walking corpse' favor as it popped out of the water and fired its toxic sludge at point-blank range, blinding Kabuterimon and dropping him into the water where he would be a sitting duck.

Miko kept on running with the Digivice in her mouth. She was wondering why on earth so much attention was being drawn to her over this trinket. She put it down before she found herself looking straight at a mean dog. He growled at her and she decided to cut her losses and leave. She was going home, that toy had been nothing but trouble for her. The dog tried to sniff his new prize before deciding it wasn't anything worth taking and just walked away. However, if he wouldn't take it, then a nearby bird would snatch it up. At the same time, Raremon had dragged the large bug Digimon under the bay waters and was slowly drowning him.

"It's probably nothing." Masami assured his wife about why their son's door was locked as they were having a late night cup of tea. "Koushiro is an adolescent now."  
"But he said he was grateful. Is that something a child his age would normally say to his parents?"  
"You're thinking too much about it."  
"Maybe. But you find it odd that spending only a day and a half at camp has changed his personality so much?"

The bird quickly pecked at the Digivice before it heard some sounds approaching and quickly picked it up with its talons and flew away. Koushiro ran up just a few seconds too late.  
"The child should be around here…" Koushiro looked around.  
"You!" PicoDevimon shouted.  
"Ah!" Underwater, Kabuterimon shoved his foot right into Raremon's face making him let go and quickly swam back up to the surface before flying in the sky once again. Raremon came back up again in pursuit. Fatal mistake.  
"Mega Blaster!" The shot made a direct and exterminated the ghoul. Koushiro had placed his back against a wall as PicoDevimon closed in. The bat wasn't that much of a threat but without a Digimon partner nearby, it would be a mistake to underestimate PicoDevimon.  
"Pico Darts!" Koushiro quickly moved aside before the darts could pierce him. The bat could only laugh at how he had a Chosen Child at his mercy.  
"Koushiro-han!" Kabuterimon called out. PicoDevimon turned to see the large insect Digimon coming towards the two of them.  
"Damn it! You're a lucky bastard!" The bat cursed before he fled.  
"Thanks, Kabuterimon!"

"Reporting live from Shibaura!" A reporter announced as the news crew were on the scene of the wrecked Club Poseidon, where medical crews were helping some of the injured but there thankfully were no deaths involved. "We have yet to confirm the appearance of the monster! Does it even exist? Huh?" His camera crew was pointing behind him in the sky. "Wait! Look at that!" They turned the camera where a glimpse of Kabuterimon could be made out. Kabuterimon was flying back to Odaiba with Koushiro on his back as they were talking about their discoveries.  
"It's too bad we couldn't find the ninth child." admitted Kabuterimon.  
"But at least knowing that the ninth child is around here, and not in Hikarigaoka, is a great find!" Koushiro shouted over the sound of the high air and Kabuterimon's wings. "Taichi-san's guess was correct! We need to let the others know about this first thing tomorrow!"  
"Yeah." Kabuterimon agreed. At Vamdemon's hideout in Hikarigaoka, PicoDevimon had just relayed to him the latest news about what he had found out.  
"I see." Vamdemon nodded. PicoDevimon had just given him the latest news about what he had found. "That's where the ninth child is located. We have no more business here!" He gave the order and the hideout was quickly abandoned for a more permeant place closer to the bay area.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

It was getting close to midnight by the time I snuck back home through the window of my room. I kept it quiet as to not draw my parents' attention. Tentomon flew in right behind me.  
"It's late, so let's get some sleep." I suggested.  
"Um… Koushiro-han… I'm sorry. I've used up all of my energy in the fight. Could I get something to eat?" I shook my head. These Digimon sometimes were like bottomless pits when it comes to food.  
"Okay. I'll look for something."  
"Thank you." I snuck into the kitchen and gathered some food. Mom and Dad must be in bed already. I was almost to my room when I saw the living room light on and peaked into it to see that Mom and Dad were in there talking.  
"Ever since he came back, it's like he's hiding something from us. Maybe he's doing something secret." Mom said, not really knowing how correct she was.  
"Even if he is, we can't blame him. We're keeping something from him, too." Dad brought up the adoption thing again. Was I really that dense to not notice that I had little resemblance to them? I also felt bad with the fact that I was hiding things from them, but the less they know about the Digimon, the better. "I'll try and get Koushiro to tell me what he's up to."  
"I'm sorry."  
"What's wrong?"  
"Just to speak honestly… I wish that Koushiro would act more spoiled and unreasonable instead of always keeping it inside and being a good boy. I want him to tell me what he likes and hates. That's what being a kid is all about! Don't you think so?" I couldn't hear more of that conversation so I took the food back to my room, and began feeling pretty guilty about everything.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Taichi, Hikari, and I were all out on the porch starting out in the night sky, just thinking about everything that was going on in general. It was something we all did everyone and a while. The patio was surprisingly a nice place just to be alone with your thoughts.  
"I wonder why Koushiro called…" Taichi said.  
"Who knows? We'll ask him in the morning." I told him.  
"I wonder where Miko went…" Hikari was more concerned about the family cat, which was nice. Leave the whole fate of two worlds on our heads, Hikari.  
"She'll be back by morning." Taichi informed her.  
"Okay… Hey, isn't Phil-san gonna be here in the morning?"  
"Yeah, he's finally gonna be home." I nodded. "Which means we probably should get some sleep, we're no good for the others if we're tired." They agreed and we all went back inside and went straight back to bed.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day for all of us…

* * *

And that was Chapter 32.

I've really got nothing to say about today, so I'll try to upload the next chapter on the 12th.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	34. Tokyo Tower is Hot! DeathMeramon!

Chapter 33!

Shoutouts to **ChloeMcphail** **94** for the fav/follow. Thank you so much.

Now to the reviews. **MadDogLucario96** , Yep, it's getting more exciting.

 **Vietnam123** , The discussion was made after they asked Hikari if she had a Digivice.

Anyways, after editing this chapter while listening to 'The Producers', and laughing at some of the lines:  
"I've spent my entire life in the theater! I was a protege of the great Boris Tomaschevski! Yes, he taught me everything I know. I'll never forget, he turned to me on his deathbed and said:  
'Maxella, alle menschen muss zu machen, jeden tug a gentzen kachen.'"  
"What does that mean?"  
"Who knows? I don't speak Yiddish, strangely enough, neither did he."

Anyways, here is the next chapter and time to finally meet a man who's been playing an influence on one of the kids.

* * *

 **Chapter 33: Tokyo Tower is Hot! DeathMeramon!**

 _Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 1st, 1999. 2345 Hours.  
P.O.V. - Third Person_

It was almost midnight when a young lady was taking the alleyways to return back to her home. The area was very foggy and barely illuminated by the streetlights. The woman continued her pace before she heard a strange sound. It sounded like wooden wheels turning. The sound soon revealed a carriage that had no driver or anything pulling it. Bats flew close by, startling the young woman, but she did not run. The carriage stopped and the door opened to reveal Vamdemon who simply walked out. The woman did not try to get away as she had sadly falling under his spell, and she would regret walking this night as Vamdemon bit into her neck, and feed on her blood like the vampire he was. Once he finished feeding, he simply left her unconscious body on the ground and rolled away from the scene.

Near the waters of the bay shortly before dawn, PicoDevimon had commandeered an old fishing hauler and was now waiting for his master to show so he could be taken over to Daiba Park, the new base of operations for Vamdemon in the city.  
"He's late…" PicoDevimon worried. "What's keeping him?" He didn't have to wait long for his answer as the carriage began rolling right towards the park. "Vamdemon-sama! You must hurry!" The carriage came to a stop and a body fell out on to the ground. It was a young blonde haired American tourist who barely looked a day out of high school. She was alive but would need attention soon. "The dawn is about to arrive soon!" The small bat informed his master.  
"There's no need to rush. Now that I know the Chosen Children are here, I must store enough energy to fight them in this world."  
"But if you make any bold movements…"  
"No matter. This world will soon belong to me in the end." The carriage suddenly began to rise before moving onto the hauler and sailing towards the Battery.

 _Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 2nd, 1999. 0743 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Oh, it has been too long since I rested that well, then again, sleeping in your own bed after so many months, you'd fall asleep in an instant. I woke up around six-thirty and hopped into the shower before getting ready for today. Taichi and Hikari both did the same as well and now after getting us some breakfast, we were in Taichi's room looking for something important. We were looking for a Hikarigaoka '95 school phone book that would have all the names and numbers of kids that were living in Hikarigaoka the night of the fight. Taichi was checking some books on his shelf before they toppled on him.

Hikari opened the door when she heard the sound. She was back to her old self in terms of her health, and she was wearing her normal attire. A yellow sleeveless shirt, light purple-colored pants, a pink neckerchief tired around her neck, and her whistle that was also around her neck.  
"What are you doing?" She asked as I was cleaning off Taichi and Agumon. Oh, yeah, Guilmon and Koromon evolved during the night so hiding them was going to be harder.  
"We're looking for our phone book. The one from first grade." Taichi answered.  
"Yeah, their phone book." Agumon chimed.  
"Phone book? Ross, don't you have one yourself?" Hikari questioned.  
"Maybe, but I think it might be still at the apartment in Yokohama."  
"Did you check your own room, Ross?" Guilmon pointed out.  
"You know what; I'll do a double check."

"Why do you guys need a phone book?" Hikari asked.  
"We're gonna try and call the number. Hopefully, the ninth child answers." explained Taichi.  
"Won't that take time?"  
"It's the only one we got right now, unless someone else came up with something better." I said.  
"Speaking of the others, Ross, are you absolutely sure we should take Hikari with us? I mean, she doesn't actually have any real stake in this." Taichi mentioned the idea I brought up a few minutes ago.  
"Sure, after all, she's the only one that remembered that night, plus she already knows all about the Digimon so she can help in our search."  
"Nine pairs of eyes are better than eight." Agumon agreed.  
"Technically, wouldn't that be seventeen pairs of eyes?" pointed out Guilmon.  
"Please, Onii-chan? Let me come." Taichi quickly thought about Hikari's request before he smiled.  
"Alright, you can come and help us try to find this kid. But I want you to promise us; the first sign of any sort of trouble, you run home, okay?" Hikari nodded as we all left the room, excluding the two Digimon who we'd try to smuggle out in a bit.

Taichi and Hikari sat on the couch and watched the news while I went into my room to try to see if maybe I did have the phonebook in here. After searching around, I came across Susumu's computer and workspace, cluttered as usual, and I managed to catch the side of the book buried in all the other books. After a few minutes of trying to get it out without causing everything to crash, I went back to the living room, phonebook in hand and handed it to Taichi.  
"Hey, thanks a lot, man."  
"No problem, though I am curious if this is actually yours or mine."  
"Either way, we just need the one."

I joined the two of them on the couch and the news was on and showing images of the Digimon that appeared in Shibaura last night including a nasty sludge like monster and it looks like the cameras caught a glimpse of Kabuterimon. Huh, so that must be the reason why Koushiro called last night.  
"Viewers are advised to please take caution against the possibility of more of these mysterious animals appearing in the future." The newscaster reported. We all looked at each other nervously on that report. "In other news… Two young women, one from the Itabashi Ward, and one, a tourist last seen in the Nerima Ward, were found collapsed in the streets last night. They were transported to the hospital due to a sudden case of anemia. A report from the hospital is as follows 'Both patients are in stable condition and will recover, but we have no idea what has cause their condition other than two small puncture marks were found on their necks.'" My eyes widened on that.

"Oh no." I said, but not too loud that Yuuko could hear us while she was working in the kitchen.  
"What?" Taichi questioned.  
"Two puncture marks? Sudden anemia? What does that sound like to you two?" Taichi's eyes widened now as he figured it out.  
"That damned bloodsucker!" He cursed under his breath.  
"Should've known he'd feed like the vampire he is." At this point, after remembering our stories, Hikari finally pieced things together.  
"You don't think those woman are going to end up like Lucy Westenra?" She feared.  
"Don't worry, Hikari." I assured her. "I think he just drank their blood, not turned them."  
"Still, this is getting even more serious than it already was. We need to find that kid fast, and kill Vamdemon even faster." I nodded at Taichi's words before I headed back to my room to get my backpack when the doorbell rang.

"Coming!" I heard Yuuko call out before the sound of the door opening. "Well, hello, stranger, how can I help you?"  
"What? You're gonna give me that old routine, Yuuko?" My eyes widened so much when I heard that voice. "Taichi-kun! Hikari-kun! God, you two have sprouted like weeds. I assume Susumu is at work?"  
"Yes, you can probably see him at his office." I ran as fast as I could until I got into the living room and came face-to-face with the voice. A clean shaven man in his late 30s, that looked somewhat weak, but that came from the treatment he had in the camps, and the whole summer he spent getting back in shape, but was still at least thirty pounds lighter than before he left. He was dressed in a South Padre Island t-shirt and some denim jeans. He had on a pair of glasses over his hazel colored eyes and had jet black hair that was closely shaven to the point he was almost bald, as his hairline was beginning to recede. This was Captain Phil McGlathery… my Dad.

We both just looked at each other not saying a word before I finally spoke up.  
"{A month and a half, you said. That's how long you'd be gone.}" I reminded him in English.  
"{Well, that was the idea but those Vietnamese hardliners had other plans.}" He said.  
"{Did you ever think you'd get out?}"  
"{I'd be lying if I said the thought of never escaping didn't cross my mind. God bless those Rangers that found us.}" At this point, I couldn't control my emotions and I just ran up and hugged him.  
"I missed you so much, Dad!" I cried in his chest. He patted me on the back and he was having tears in his eyes as well.  
"I missed you, too, Ross. My greatest fear in that camp wasn't dying, but leaving you all alone." I almost laughed; being alone was one of the reasons of my depression but thanks to talking to Taichi and Hikari, I knew I was never alone thanks to them. As much as I loved this reunion, it would have to be cut short as we had bigger concerns.  
"So, what are you going to do now?" I questioned.  
"Well, I'm not serving on ships no more; I've been granted my request for a quiet desk job at the base, so I ain't going anywhere anymore. Seriously, its great see you all again."  
"We're glad to see you again too, Phil-san." Taichi informed.  
"We missed you." chimed Hikari.

"Listen, Dad. Taichi, Hikari and I were going to meet up with some friends so…"  
"Hey, it's fine; we'll have plenty of time to catch up. You can all tell me later what you've been up to. Though, quick question, Ross. How are your grades?"  
"Great."  
"And have you been respecting your elders?"  
"Yes."  
"And have you been treating the girls' right?" He smirked on that last question.  
"Following your advice to a 'T'." He roughed up my hair.  
"That's my boy!" There was another ring at the door, probably Koushiro, and Yuuko walked over to check.  
"Guys! It's Koushiro-kun!"  
"Thanks, Mom!" Taichi said as he and Hikari ran back to our room, but I saw him mouthed the word 'Digimon' and pointed to his room. I took that as it was my job to keep Yuuko and Dad distracted while they snuck them out, but I really didn't need to as they were in the kitchen talking with their backs turned to the hall. We snuck out though Agumon tripped and I had to feign the fall just keep them from getting suspicious. Both Hikari and I laughed as she pretended to help me up.

"Yo." Taichi said hello to Koushiro.  
"Good morning, you guys." He responded.  
"Great to meet you, Koushiro-san." Hikari bowed.  
"Koushiro, meet Yagami Hikari, Taichi's little sister; she's coming with us since she knows about the Digimon." I explained.  
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Hikari-kun. Oh, Agumon, Guilmon!"  
"We ate so much, we evolved." Agumon informed him.  
"A good night's sleep doesn't hurt either." Guilmon added.  
"Mornin'." Tentomon greeted walking up to us, dressed in a green poncho and a yellow cap.  
"Tentomon! I almost didn't recognize you!" Taichi admitted to being almost fooled by the get up.  
"Why, thank you, thank you." He rubbed the back of his head.  
"It looks pretty good on you."  
"Yeah, that's a good idea by the way. We need to disguise you Digimon now. Can't claim you're plushies now." I reminded.

We were on our way to a nearby park where we planned to meet with everyone else and plan our next move. We had the phonebook and the Digimon disguised with Agumon wearing a blue hoodie and Guilmon in a windbreaker and wearing a plan grey baseball cap. It looked like it was working as no one was looking in our direction or at least paying close attention. We were right by the park waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green.  
"Were you able to find the student phone book you had while you lived in Hikarigaoka?" Koushiro asked.  
"Yeah, but did you need both of ours? Because we both had the same book." Taichi told him.  
"Uh huh. You couldn't find yours so you took Ross's."  
"Hey, it might be his. Mine might be back at the apartment in Yokohama." I defended.  
"Sora was in the same class with them, so wouldn't Sora's be the same too?" Hikari thought.  
"Maybe, but you never know." Koushiro conceded.

When we got to the meet up that was under a multitude of trees in the park, we found that Yamato and Takeru were waiting for us. After quick introductions of Hikari and the others, Koushiro explained what had happened last night. A creature called Raremon wreaked havoc in Shibaura last night, and that Koushiro had actually picked up the ninth child's Digivice in that area. This came as great news to us as that might have actually reduced our search radius.  
"Good morning!" Sora and Piyomon shouted as they ran towards us. We saw that coming right behind her was Mimi pushing a baby stroller with what looked like Palmon in a bonnet riding in it.  
"Palmon, you're heavy." complained Mimi. "Come out."  
"No! You told me to stay in here, Mimi!"  
"Not anymore." We all sat down in a circle to talk about what to do next.

"Things are becoming more chaotic that ever, don't you think?" Sora brought up.  
"Ever since I woke up, this is the only thing I've seen them reporting on TV." Yamato said.  
"But it's weird." Taichi muttered.  
"What is?" Agumon asked.  
"When you, me, Ross and Guilmon came back to this world earlier, the Digimon appeared then as well. But, back then, only we and Hikari could see them."  
"You could see them?" Mimi inquired. Hikari nodded.  
"Mm-hm. I was seeing them on TV a few days before everything you guys went through." She explained.  
"That's right. Now more people besides us are seeing them and it's enough to catch the media's attention." Taichi finished. The others made low sounds of surprise upon that news.  
"Well, they weren't fully crossed over when they first made their appearance." I pointed out.  
"Yes, maybe it's because these Digimon used Vamdemon's Gate to get here." theorized Koushiro.  
"That must be it." Yamato agreed. "If more Digimon used that Gate to enter our world…" Takeru tightened his hold of Patamon with a scared look on his face.  
"There'll be trouble." The youngest member of our group worried. I don't know where our minds went, but I think it was all on the image of Tokyo ablaze with Digimon swarming all over.

"Oh no." Mimi held herself in fear.  
"It's a very likely situation!" Koushiro came to a conclusion.  
"That's why we should hurry up and find the ninth child, so we can make sure that won't happen! And to save the Digimon world!" Taichi determined. We all nodded in agreement.  
"Yeah!" "Let's do it!"  
"Hey!" We heard a voice yell out, freaking us out for a second as we thought we had been discovered, only to find that it was Jou running towards us, with Gomamon in a duffle bag. "I had a hard time finding my old phone book!" He told us his reason for being late.  
"Man, talk about killing the tension." Taichi sighed.  
"I think my heart skipped for a second there." I joked.  
"Sorry… um, who's this?" Jou looked at Hikari.  
"I'm Hikari, Taichi and Ross's little sister. Please to meet you, Jou-senpai." They shook hands before we motioned Jou to sit down.

"Okay, so let me just remind us of what we know about this child so far." Koushiro began to explain. "The ninth child should have seen the Digimon with us when the incident occurred in Hikarigaoka four years ago. What's also important is what happened in Shibaura last night."  
"Does that mean the child is living in Shibaura now?" Mimi guessed.  
"He could have moved like we did." Yamato observed.  
"That's why I think we should separate into groups and make a thorough search in Shibaura." Koushiro suggested. "And not just there either, I mean the surrounding districts and rail stops as well, Mita, Shirokane, Kaigan, Tamachi, Shinagawa, Hamamatsucho, Sengakuji. Somewhere across that bridge lives the ninth child."  
"That's a much wider search area then simply Shibaura." I pointed out.  
"Maybe, but we don't want this kid to slip through our grasp again." Yamato said. "Everyone agree?"  
"It's a little hot, but that's fine with me." Mimi agreed. She then pulled out her phone book that read Wakaba Preschool on the front of it. "So, what do we do with these phone books?"  
"It's very likely that the ninth child is listed in one of them. We should call and ask if anyone had been in Shibaura last night." Koushiro said.

"So, who exactly would call all these numbers?" wondered Hikari.  
"I have summer school starting tomorrow." Jou raised his hand. "I'll make my phone calls, but I'll have sit out from going all the way to Shibaura." What?  
"That's low!" Taichi said what some of us was probably thinking.  
"I can't help it; I'm studying for my entrance exams!" Mimi suddenly handed him her phone book.  
"Then make my phone calls for me, okay? There's my address book from Wakaba Preschool."  
"That's a good idea." Yamato agreed. "Here's mine from Dai-yon Elementary School. I'm counting on you."  
"It might be a good idea if one of us focuses on making the calls." Koushiro handed his phone book to Jou, much to the dismay of the boy who suddenly was feeling quite overburdened.  
"He has a point. Thank you, Senpai!" Sora handed hers and walked away.  
"Hey… No, not you too, Taichi!" Jou begged. Taichi had a sorry look on his face, not really knowing how far this would get out of hand.  
"Relax. I'm not gonna push my workload onto you."  
"Oh man, you're such a great guy!"  
"No need to say that much."  
"He didn't find his phone book, did he?" Sora questioned both Koushiro and myself as we walked away.  
"No, he did but…" Koushiro was about to say more before I interrupted him.  
"He has yours, Sora, which should be good enough at least for today."

After our meeting, we headed on the first rail to take us to station at Hinode where we would split up and try to search for the ninth child. As we looked out the window, we could see the damage that was caused from last night's fight.  
"So that mess is from your fight last night…" Taichi was dumbstruck by the damage.  
"It looks pretty disastrous." Yamato observed.  
"The ninth child is around there." Takeru said. We can only hope we find this kid soon, before the rest of the city looks just like that nightclub.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

At the same time the children were on their way to Shibaura and the surrounding areas, PicoDevimon was on the fishing hauler, sailing straight for the battery while Vamdemon was in his coffin that was onboard the carriage.  
"If I remember right, this is where the ninth child was last night." PicoDevimon thought aloud. In his mind, the noose was slowly tightening around this child's neck. Soon he would be found and Vamdemon would exterminate the main threat to his plans.

Back in Odaiba, at the Fuji Television building, some of the workers were discovering the strange weather that was appearing in the area.  
"Look outside." A man said to his co-worker. "It's foggy. I've never seen fog this thick before."  
"I heard there was even snow falling in Tama. What is causing all of these strange phenomena?"

After a few more minutes of sailing, the hauler pulled up to the battery and the carriage rolled of the ship on to the ground before sinking into it. A pocket dimension had been created on the island that would serve as Vamdemon's headquarters for his plans.  
"We've been awaiting your arrival. Vamdemon-sama!" Tailmon shouted before all the other followers joined in. Vamdemon merely walked out to survey the area.  
"This is a good spot. We will make this place our headquarters." He then gave out his standing orders of finding the ninth child and Tailmon warped through the ground back to the surface.

"Where are you going, Tailmon?" PicoDevimon asked.  
"It's our mission to look for the ninth child."  
"Trying to snatch the spoils away from me, eh? That's just like you!" The power struggle between the two of them was coming to another head.  
"What?"  
"I only spoke the truth, didn't I? I'm the one who found the ninth child first."  
"And if I recall, you lost the child as well."  
"Either way, it's naturally my right to search that area." Tailmon scoffed.  
"Do you really think the ninth child will stick around in one place?"  
"If that's what you think, then I take it you won't have a problem with searching the opposite area." He took off for Shibaura. "Good luck finding him, if you even can!" The cat merely growled at those words before going off and searching around Odaiba. If most of the Chosen Children lived there, then perhaps maybe the ninth child did too.

"Okay, does everyone know which areas they'll be covering?" Koushiro asked the gang.  
"Yeah." "Affirmative." "Don't worry." "Well, let's start." The gang was separated into four groups. The first group consisted of Taichi and Koushiro who was exploring the shops in the respective areas.  
"Taichi…" Agumon looked inside a restaurant, feeling hungry.  
"No." They walked a bit further down the shopping district. "Well?" Taichi questioned Koushiro who had his Digivice out. A bunch of children suddenly ran past them, but Koushiro got his answer immediately.  
"No reaction." He said with disappointment. Group two consisted of Yamato and Takeru who were exploring around the docks in an effort to locate the child. There were some kids around this area, but Takeru was seeing nothing on his Digivice.  
"He can't be around here."  
"Yeah." Yamato agreed.

Back in Odaiba, Jou was sitting in his home and had the books out as he begun to start dialing all the numbers.  
"Hello? This is Kido. I used to be in your class in the second grade…" Mimi and Sora were in the third group and were walking around the apartments and neighborhoods to see if they could perhaps find the home of the ninth Chosen Child. Of course, they were more concerned with the fact that Palmon and Piyomon were sharing the stroller and were currently fighting with each other.  
"You're smothering me! Why don't you go fly, Piyomon?" Palmon complained.  
"Palmon, I think you've gotten fatter!" Piyomon insulted.  
"That's rude!"  
"Don't fight, you two." Sora attempted to break up the fight. "Babies don't act like this.  
"Could the ninth child really be around here?" Mimi wondered. "Also… it's really hot!"

The final group was Ross and Hikari who were exploring any of the hangouts that the child might be at, like parks or playgrounds. It was also a duel search as Miko the cat was also missing, but that wasn't as much of a concern as that cat had been gone for hours at a time before and always came back.  
"Anything?" Guilmon asked if Ross was picking up anything with his Digivice.  
"No…" groaned Ross. "It's been a few hours, and I think we've hit almost every park and playground on the other side of the bridge and still nothing."  
"So the child probably isn't here. Neither is Miko." Hikari guessed.  
"Looks that way. And as for Miko, she's probably on her way back home, you know how she is."  
"Yeah, she knows the way back. So, should we go home, maybe? It's already lunch."  
"Well, I guess we can, we've already done our job and besides, I can check up on Jou's progress."  
"Then let's go." About thirty minutes later, the trio was back in Odaiba on the way back to their apartment. "Hey, Hikari? You'd be fine to go the rest of the way back home right?" Ross suggested.  
"Sure, I can look for Miko around the apartment too." Ross smiled.  
"Alright, I'm heading over to Jou's to see how he's doing, then I'll come back and hang out with you for the rest of the day, okay?"  
"Okay, Ross-chan."  
"Take care, Hikari. We'll see you later." Guilmon waved as they headed for Jou's apartment.

At the same time, Tailmon was watching intently a large group of humans that were hanging around Odaiba Beach, all as part of her search for the ninth child.  
"How carefree they are. There's not a chance the ninth child is among them." She said as she walked away on all fours as not to draw any attention. She walked into the park where the children had met earlier and saw a cream colored cat hopping away with a young girl following close behind. Hikari had managed to find Miko near the apartment, but the cat was so energetic that she didn't want to go back home yet; even after her crazy ordeal the night before.

"Miko! Wait up! I don't want to lose you again! Miko!" She caught up with the cat and picked her up, and while Miko resisted at first, a quick scratch behind the ears and she was ready for home. The two of them were walking when Hikari walked right by Tailmon. "We'll get you cleaned up and then you can take a long nap…?" She trailed as she noticed the Cat Digimon. Tailmon looked back at her before Hikari smiled at her. "Are you a friend of Agumon and Guilmon's?" She asked. Tailmon's eyes widened on those words and she tensed up. "You are, aren't you?" Tailmon quickly recovered by meowing like the cat she was, hoping to fool the young girl. "What's your name?" Tailmon meowed again before running off. "Wait! Huh… What do you think was up with her, Miko?" The cat in her arms could barely be bothered as she had already dozed off.

" _That girl…"_ Tailmon thought as she observed Hikari who begun walking back to the Yagami's apartment. _"How does she know about Agumon? Could she be the ninth child?"_ If her instincts were right, she had to act upon this. Tailmon followed Hikari closely but not too much to draw her eye again. Hikari was soon back home and unlocking the door when she spotted Tailmon again.  
"Come over here!" She called out. Tailmon mentally cursed for her slip up and hid once more. "My mom's out, and Ross-chan and Guilmon won't be back for a little bit. I'll leave the door open." She walked inside.  
" _Ross-chan? That's the name of one of those children, the one who is partnered with the Guilmon. Even if she isn't the ninth child… she still bears a close connection with one of the children. Damn it, why did I have to forget the Crest at base, I could easily solve the question if she is indeed the child Vamdemon-sama desires."_ Tailmon thought once more.

"This extreme humidity in the Tokyo Bay area of Odaiba is rare, even for summer, and the cause behind it is unknown." Tailmon could hear a narrator on the television say. She saw that Hikari was now sitting on the couch in the living room after putting Miko back in her parents' room. Tailmon continued to make her observations, waiting just to be sure about striking.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

We had been walking for so long now, and even after breaking for lunch, Mimi and I were no closer to finding this ninth child. Could we be searching in the wrong area, or did one of the others already find him?  
"Why do we have to keep doing this when we just got back home?" complained Mimi once again. I understand where she's coming from. We've been walking in the Digital World for so long that when we finally make it back home, we're back to more walking. Sadly, Vamdemon isn't giving us much time to rest, as much as we all wished. "Let's take a little break, Sora-san."  
"Again? Well, make it quick." I told her. She quickly sat and stretched on a bench that was underneath a well shady tree.  
"I slept in a soft bed last night with the A/C on. That's when it sunk that home is the best place in the world."  
"The food was delicious too." Palmon claimed as she sat next to Mimi.  
"Yeah." Both Piyomon and I took the opportunity to break as well, but I was looking at a city map and checking the areas we had explored.

"It was the first time I thought my mom's cooking tasted so good. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've always liked my mom's cooking, but this time was so much better than before." clarified Mimi.  
"The food at Sora's house was wonderful!" Piyomon excitedly informed the other two. "Sora's mother looked very kind, too. Right, Sora?" I smiled.  
"You really think so? Thanks. Now, back to work…" I crossed out another area with an 'x'. "Let's see…"  
"She's really focused…" Mimi whispered to Palmon. "Isn't she hot?"  
"You two just have different levels of endurance."  
"I'd rather stay as a delicate girl. Oh! Sora-san! Why don't we try a place that has crowds of people?"  
"Crowds of people?"  
"Yes, over there!" She pointed over right where Tokyo Tower was. I conceded and followed her as we walked over to the tower. Maybe the kid might be there, you never know.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

After dialing another number and still not getting any luck, I decided to take a break and get some lunch out of my fridge. As I was making myself a sandwich, there was knock on the door. I walked over and opened to find Ross at the door.  
"Ross-kun?"  
"Hey, can I come in?"  
"Uh, sure, umm, weren't you supposed to be looking for the ninth child?"  
"I was, and I search every park and playground across that bridge and no dice. Hikari's back home and I came to check on you."  
"Hello, Gomamon. How have you been doing?" Guilmon asked the seal Digimon.  
"Sleeping while Jou keeps calling numbers." I went over and sat at the dining table to eat my sandwich. Ross looked over and saw a family photo.  
"I didn't know you had brothers." He said.  
"Yeah, that's Shin and Shuu. Shin's the eldest and is attending his first year at the university and Shuu is the middle child and in his last year of high school. He's actually currently out of town on a school club trip or something." I explained.

"So I take it you've not been having any luck either?" Ross questioned.  
"Ross-kun, I have dialed so many numbers today, the dial tone is permanently stuck in my head."  
"Sorry to hear that."  
"I've called almost half of those numbers now and I don't think the child is in any of them."  
"He has to be, there's no other reason why not."  
"Ross-kun… Are you sure the ninth child isn't Hikari-kun?"  
"I know what you're saying, Taichi and I came to the same conclusion, but she didn't have a Digivice with her, nor was she out in Shibaura last night."  
"That's what I thought." I sighed. "I wonder, does this child know exactly what kind of danger they're in?"  
"Who knows… but what matters right now is we need to find this kid soon, before that vampire does."

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"It feels so cool!" Mimi exclaimed as we strolled onto the observation deck of the tower. "It's great to be in a place with air-conditioning!"  
"I feel like I'm coming back to life!" Palmon cheered before Mimi shoved her back into the stroller as not to draw the attention of the other visitors.  
"I thought as much." I mumbled.  
"Sora, that's where your house is, right?" Piyomon asked as she looked out across the skyline.  
"Yeah. This is the world we live in."  
"Mimi, does it feel a little hotter in here to you?" Palmon questioned.  
"Yeah. I guess the air-conditioning isn't very strong over here." We walked right over to where the air vents were.  
"What a cool breeze!" "Feels great!" The Digimon said as the vents suddenly died.

"It's getting warmer." Mimi moaned. We weren't the only ones complaining about that as so were the rest of the people on the deck.  
"Maybe the air conditioner broke." I assumed before Mimi made a strange sound.  
"How is he able to wear a full-length coat in this summer heat?!" Mimi questioned the very large man in a trench coat. "I feel hotter just locking at him!"  
"H-Hey, Mimi-chan, he'll hear you."  
"But it's true." The man turned around towards us.  
"Look, he heard you!" We both suddenly screamed when he became engulfed in white-hot flames. The man revealed to have blue hair, chains wrapped around his muscular body and face made completely of metal.  
"A Digimon!" Palmon and Piyomon cried out as they hopped out of the stroller to try to hold off the massive Digimon.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

I think this heat is starting to melt my brain. We've been searching for hours now and there's not even one remote sight of this ninth child.  
"I think it just got even hotter all of a sudden…" Agumon complained about the heat.  
"I don't believe this…" panted Tentomon.  
"Tokyo Tower looks like it's bending." Koushiro spotted the tower in the distance.  
"That can't be!" I dismissed. I looked closely and it turned out Koushiro was right. "It really is!" I pulled out my telescope to get a better look. I looked to the observation deck where the glass exploded as Birdramon flew out of it being chased by a flaming-blue man! "It's a Digimon!" I yelled.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Both our Digimon quickly evolved to deal with the attacking monster and took the fight to the outside of the tower.  
"Meteor Wing!" The attack directly collided with the flame Digimon, but didn't affect him for the reason that he was already on fire. Great, it's like Meramon all over again.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" Togemon launched her needles but the flame Digimon merely burned them all before throwing a whip of fire that struck Togemon in the face.  
"Togemon!" I shouted. The chain welding Digimon just laughed in sadistic glee at what he just did. We then looked up to see Kabuterimon flying in the air towards us which meant that Taichi and him were not joining the fight.  
"That's DeathMeramon." We were able to hear Koushiro inform. "He's a Perfect-Level!"  
"Heavy Metal Fire!" DeathMeramon shouted his signature attack. The flames missed but melted some of the metal beams to the tower and had it started tilting!  
"It's falling! Kabuterimon, hold it up!" ordered Koushiro. Kabuterimon quickly pushed it back into place, prevent all sort of damage from being caused.  
"I'll burn you all to the ground!" DeathMeramon roared.  
"We won't let that happen!" Taichi countered.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" Greymon jumped down and delivered a duel kick right into the Perfect-Level's chest. "Mega Flame!" Just like our encounter with Meramon, the attack did nothing but make him larger.

"He got bigger after absorbing the Mega Flame!" Taichi shouted.  
"He's a Perfect-Level!" reminded Koushiro. "An Adult-Level like Greymon is no match against him!" Greymon seemed like he got the message and began to glow.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" The two Perfects charged straight towards one another and grappled with each other, trying hard not to give any ground on the metal roof. MetalGreymon lost the tug of war and was currently on his knees when Birdramon flew close and distracted DeathMeramon and allowed Togemon quickly charged towards his back. Of course, DeathMeramon countered by falling on her.  
"Togemon! Get a hold of yourself, honestly!" I yelled as she ran with her back on fire.  
"Heavy Metal Fire!" His shot hit Birdramon directly in the chest and sent her falling. MetalGreymon was tired of this fight and flew up and aimed his metal arm towards the attacker.  
"Trident Arm!" His arm launched out and DeathMeramon dodged it before wrapping a chain around it.  
"I've caught you!" He taunted. "Heavy Metal Fire!" MetalGreymon dodged that attack and flew away.  
"Who's caught who now?" MetalGreymon shouted.  
"What?" DeathMeramon was soon dragged up into the air leaving him wide open for an attack.  
"Giga Destroyer!" MetalGreymon launched his missiles and utterly vaporized that flaming creep. We all gave our congratulations before we quickly got away before the police showed up.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"According to eye-witness reports, monsters have been seen fighting each other." The news reporter said on the TV in the Yagami household.  
" _She's definitely not an ordinary child."_ Tailmon thought as she continued to observe Hikari. _"I should kill her now."  
_ "Speculation has arisen that this may be connected to the uproar about monsters that occurred yesterday." The report continued as Tailmon hopped onto the back of the couch and slowly approached the eight year old girl with the intent to kill. She rose up her claw, ready to bring it down when Hikari turned around with a sweet innocent smile on her face. Tailmon suddenly was taken aback by this look.  
"Come here." Hikari offered her hands out so Tailmon could jump in them. Tailmon took another step back and ended up falling on the floor. She then quickly went back to acting like a normal Earth cat and began walking for the door. "Are you going already? You'll come back again, right?" Tailmon hightailed it out of there, especially if one of the Chosen Children was going to be arriving there any minute. Tailmon was utterly confused with what had happened, she had the girl right there and hesitated to strike. She had never done that before.  
" _I can't act when I have no official proof that's she's the ninth child."_

What Tailmon didn't know was that Hikari would play a huge part in her immediate future…

* * *

And that was Chapter 33.

A major showdown is closing in around Tokyo and the stakes are getting higher.

I'm cranking these out as fast as I can, but it will come to a slowdown after next week. The story will still probably be done before the end of the year, but I won't be able to keep up with deadlines so I'll be doing away with them soon.

Until, then, I'll see you guys on the 15th or sooner.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	35. Pump and Gotsu are Shibuya-type Digimon!

Chapter 34, folks! The showdown is coming!

Shoutout to **rigenki** and **retro maina** for your faves and follows. Thank you.

Now for reviews, **MadDogLucario96** , you're right... why did Tailmon harm Hikari? Hmm... *Wink*

Anyways, let's get on with show.

* * *

 **Chapter 34: Pump and Gotsu are Shibuya-type Digimon!**

 _Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 2nd, 1999. 1901 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

The Shibuya Ward. One of the most popular locations of Tokyo's nightlife. It was always crowed as locals and tourists enjoying the area with friends. Tonight was no exception. While some of those that resided around in the area were worried about the recent Digimon sightings, some were figuring they would be fine. The monsters were slowly moving their way down to the bay and that they were avoiding Shibuya. However, tonight that would change; in perhaps an unusual and strictly coincidental manner.

As people were doing the normal routine and walking around the streets of Shibuya, two Digimon had found their way into the area… by riding on the roof of a taxi. One of them was a small humanoid rock golem creature with yellow eyes. The other one was a sort of stuffed doll like creature, at least in terms of his body, while his head was a pumpkin with a hatchet imbedded at the top. This was Gotsumon and Pumpmon and they were here for less malicious reasons than say their commander was wanting.

Not all of the Digimon that came along with Vamdemon were entirely loyal to him. Some did serve him out of respect or fear, but there were a few that were more mercenary-like and was just looking for a good fight. Then came this particular duo. Pumpmon, who was a Perfect-Level Digimon and Gotsumon, who was a Child-Level, had come along on this crusade not for glory or to cause mass destruction, but rather just some fun. They could truly care less about searching for the ninth child; for them, this city was waiting for them and they planned to take it by storm.

"So this is the famous Shibuya that's even talked about in the Digital World!" Pumpmon awed.  
"These are Shibuya-type humans?" inquired Gotsumon.  
"Feels like something exciting will happen!"  
"This looks fun!" The two of them hopped off the taxi and charged ahead planning to rock this town with a party it would never forget.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

Our search around the docks came up empty and there was no sign of the ninth child anywhere. Takeru and I just kept searching until I noticed it was starting to get kind of late so I had to take Takeru back home to Mom in Sangenjaya which was part of the Setagaya Ward. Our ride on the rail was pretty quiet as we really didn't say much.  
"Yamato and Takeru's parents divorced four years ago." Tsunomon explained to Patamon who both were up above us on the luggage railing.  
"So even though they're brothers, Yamato lives with his dad and Takeru lives with his mom, huh?" With what those two were talking about, I wonder what Takeru would be like if our parents never divorced, would he still be the same? Eh, no use thinking of some useless scenarios, the scenario we should be focused on is finding this ninth child soon.

"It's late." Takeru said as he looked at his Digivice, apparently he found some sort of clock function on that thing. "Onii-chan."  
"Hm?"  
"You should get off at the next stop."  
"No, I'll take you all the way to Sangenjaya."  
"It's okay."  
"Takeru."  
"What?"  
"Let me do this."  
"Okay." He conceded.

"Do you not like separating?" Patamon asked. Well, Takeru seemed to get upset by that question.  
"Shut up!"  
"Takeru!" I told him. Patamon did ask a dumb question; of course we don't like getting separated, but that's no excuse for Takeru to yell at the bat-hamster.  
"You don't have to shout at me like that!" Patamon scolded.  
"I don't care if it is you, Patamon, you shouldn't talk about us brothers like that!" argued Takeru. Ugh, these two going at it again. Well, I guess I can understand. Takeru is still a little kid, and in a way, so is Patamon. Little kids argue with each other all the time over the smallest of reasons but after a little bit they'd make up quick.  
"Fine! I won't talk anymore!"  
"Patamon!" Tsunomon tried to play peacekeeper as the train began to slow down at the Shibuya station.

"I'm getting off here!" Patamon shouted as he flew right out the door to our surprise and shock.  
"Patamon!" I called as I quickly got up and ran right after him but suddenly lost him. How can he move that fast? I picked up Tsunomon who jumped down to me. "Takeru! Patamon flew off!" He had his back to me and his fists clenched.  
"Who cares about him…" He muttered.  
"The door is going to close!" Tsunomon warned.  
"Takeru. Don't do this, not after everything you two have been through." I reminded him. He probably suddenly remembered all the times Patamon saved him, because as soon as the doors began to close, he quickly ran out to join us.

We looked around the station but couldn't see any sign of Patamon. The three of us walked up out of the underground and onto the streets of the popular area.  
"Where could Patamon have gone?" questioned Tsunomon.  
"It's your fault for yelling at him, Takeru." I told him. I hated to be blunt about it, but it was the truth.  
"He deserved it!" Takeru angrily informed.  
"Hey, don't take it out on me."  
"Onii-chan…" He looked back at me with a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry."  
"You went too far when you spoke to Patamon."  
"I didn't mean to… because he said the truth…" Takeru always takes the divorce hard whenever it's brought up.  
"Well, it's not like I don't understand how you feel."  
"Let's try looking over there." suggested Tsunomon. We nodded and walked over to a different street.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

On the other side of the street at a nearby Pachinko joint, both Pumpmon and Gotsumon were enjoying themselves in there. Gambling for cash was of course illegal, but Pachinko was kind of a work around system as they could be traded for items or tokens that could be exchanged eventually for money. Pumpmon at the moment seemed to be doing well as he was winning lots of balls.  
"This is really fun!" He cheered.  
"Hey, give me some!" Gotsumon asked as he was having poorer luck.  
"Again?!"  
"Don't be selfish!"  
"But I _am_ selfish."  
"I'll pay you back."  
"Promise, got it?"  
"Got it."  
"You two." One of the joint's bouncers walked up behind the two. "You're kids wearing costumes, aren't you?" They didn't even get a chance to answer as he grabbed the two of them and threw them down the escalator. "The next time I see you in here, I'm calling your school!" He threatened.  
"We're not kids!" Pumpmon yelled.  
"We're just short!" explained Gotsumon. The bouncer quickly appeared at the top of the escalator again.  
"What are you still doing here?!" He shouted. The two Digimon quickly panicked and ran away.

"So, like, I took a peek up there and it was so…" A teenage girl was talking on her cell phone before the two Digimon would end up colliding with her and knocking her over.  
"It's a Shibuya girl!" Gotsumon informed.  
"Let's hit on her to commemorate our first night in Shibuya!" Pumpmon declared.  
"Hey, babe!"  
"What do you guys want?" The girl questioned.  
"Do you know what time it is?" The girl quickly looked at her watch before she noticed where the two of them were standing.  
"Hey, don't get too close! You weirdos look like you just ran off the set from 'Kinchan no Kasoh Taisho!'"  
"What's that?" Pumpmon asked.  
"I don't get it." Gotsumon said as the two Digimon had never heard of the popular gameshow.  
"You're wearing something weird yourself." Pumpmon pointed out to the piercing the girl had on her nose and began to tug at it. Fatal mistake. The girl screamed in anger and the two Digimon ran for their lives from the girl who was planning to murder the both of them.  
"You little jerks!"

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takashi_

Yamato and I were walking down these stairs in front of a few stores still trying to find any trace of Patamon. The three of us were quickly surprised when we saw two obvious Digimon running in our direction. Tsunomon was quick to not let these guys get the drop on us.  
"Tsunomon, evolve! GABUMON!" The two Digimon stopped as soon as they ran right in front of Gabumon. "Pumpmon! Gotsumon!"  
"Do you know these Digimon?" I asked while keeping behind him.  
"I think these two work for Vamdemon!" Our eyes widened on those words, but the look on the two Digimon was less intent to kill and more scared out of their minds.  
"There's a Shibuya girl even scarier than Vamdemon-sama who's chasing after us!" The pumpkin head Digimon that I assumed was Pumpmon explained.  
"Eh?" All three of us said.  
"You should hide, too!" Gotsumon insisted as both of Vamdemon's servants grabbed Gabumon and dragged him into hiding.

"Where did those 'Kinchan no Kasoh Taisho' freaks go?!" A teenage girl with a green bandana yelled as she ran right towards us.  
"They went that way." Yamato pointed in the opposite direction.  
"Thanks!" She ran the direction she was given. The two Digimon that were hiding near me quickly let out a sigh of relief.  
"Did Vamdemon order the two of you to come here and find the ninth child?" Gabumon asked.  
"Yeah." admitted Pumpmon. The whole mood got darkened as we were worried that they were going to try and harm us. "But Shibuya's much more fun!" Okay, did not expect them to say that.  
"Shibuya is more fun?" Yamato repeated as it was like he couldn't even comprehend that phrase, at least from two Digimon serving Vamdemon.  
"We've totally become Shibuya-type Digimon!" Gotsumon explained as they both gave out a pose and laughed.  
"Shibuya-type Digimon?" I muttered.  
"Just what are you two thinking?" Gabumon questioned.  
"Nothing at all!" They both shouted with smiles on their faces.

The three of us just shook our heads at this turn of events. A thought did cross my mind. While we were eating lunch yesterday, Ross gave the idea that perhaps the partner Digimon of the ninth child may have joined Vamdemon's forces in order to join their human partner here in Tokyo. So, could one of these guys be that partner? A quick look and I decided that it probably wasn't. As soon as I looked back in front of us, Pumpmon and Gotsumon vanished!  
"Those guys!" Yamato shouted. We ran out into the sidewalks and found those two had jumped onto a traffic signal and were shaking it up causing a real mess at the intersection.  
"Hey, you!" Gabumon called them out. "What are you two doing?!" A familiar sound soon reached our ears.  
"Police sirens!" I alerted.  
"They'll arrest us if they see this." worried Yamato. "Let's run for it!" Gabumon and I nodded and we followed Yamato away from the scene.  
"They're running away. Let's joint them." suggested Gotsumon.  
"Wait for us!" They yelled as they trailed along with us.

After running for the past few minutes to get away from that intersection, we stopped to catch our breath.  
"H-Huh? Where are Pumpmon and Gotsumon?" Yamato wondered.  
"They were running alongside us a minute ago." I told him.  
"Those two just do whatever they feel like…" Gabumon said. "Ahh!" He shouted in surprise. Found them. Those two were in the front room of a clothing store trying on outfits!  
"Those guys…" Yamato and I moaned.  
"I think this dress will look better on you!"  
"I agree." Those two were switching clothes on one another and causing a mess as we ran in.  
"Pumpmon! Gotsumon!" Yamato got their attention.  
"Do you want to wear stuff, too?" asked Gotsumon.  
"Wear it!" They manhandled us and shoved us into some clothes that they had in a pile. Yamato in a way too long coat, me in an outfit similar to the one I used to referee that tug of war at the Village of Beginnings and Gabumon in a bear costume.  
"You look great!" The two troublemakers shouted as I saw Patamon fly right outside the window!  
"Patamon!" I called out but he didn't hear.  
"After him!" Yamato cried so we threw off those silly outfits and chased him.  
"Should we follow?"  
"Yeah!" Great, those two won't leave us along.

I don't know who but apparently when Patamon doesn't want to be found, he can be really good at getting away.  
"We lost him again…" I mumbled.  
"Patamon must still be mad." Yamato believed.  
"He's not usually this stubborn…" Gabumon informed. Our disappointment was soon interrupted when Pumpmon and Gotsumon ran up to us holding ice cream in their hands.  
"Come on, cheer up!" insisted Pumpmon.  
"Believe that you'll find him some day." Gotsumon said.  
"And have some ice cream!" You know what, that actually sounds kinda good right no-… wait a minute.  
"Where did you get that ice cream?" Gabumon said what we were all thinking.  
"We stole it!" They said. Yep, that's what we thought. And just on cue, here came a woman dressed in an ice cream server outfit running right for us.  
"Ice cream thieves!" She shouted and we took off running once again.  
"Why do we have to run away, too?!" Yamato wondered aloud.  
"Well, she's seen us with them!" Gabumon made a good point.  
"Want to eat ice cream while we're running away?" Pumpmon asked.  
"Just throw it away!" I told them.

After running away and putting our distance from the trouble we stumbled upon again tonight, we panted once more in order to catch our breath.  
"Want some?" Pumpmon was still trying to offer that ice cream.  
"Not me." "Me neither." Yamato and I said. Gabumon on the other hand… well, if you do offer a Digimon food, they usually will eat it.  
"…Gimme." Gabumon bluntly asked.  
"Hey! Gabumon!" Yamato tried to remind him it was stolen. The sound of thunder soon filled the air as we looked up to see a very ominous storm cloud above. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the ground and threw up a large cloud of dust. Walking through the cloud came our worst fear, Vamdemon.  
"Vamdemon-sama!" Pumpmon and Gotsumon shouted with worry in their voices.  
"Vamdemon!" The three of us worried as Yamato quickly pushed me behind him and Gabumon moved out in front of the both of us. The vampire could only smile a sinister grin.

"Pumpmon. Gotsumon." His look suddenly got more serious as to intimidate all of us.  
"Y-Yes, sir?" Both Digimon stuttered.  
"Why are you enjoying ice cream with the Chosen Children?"  
"W-Well…"  
"What happened to your search for the ninth child?"  
"We haven't found him yet."  
"Then why aren't you stealing the Crests from these children?"  
"That's just what we were about to do!" They turned towards us with wicked looks on their faces.  
"Run!" Gabumon ordered and we ran as fast as we could to get away from them but Pumpmon and Gotsumon chased right after us while I could hear Vamdemon laughing behind us.  
"Why would they suddenly attack us like that?" I questioned.  
"There's no helping it! They were our enemies to begin with! Besides, fear is a powerful motivator!" Yamato explained.  
"But I can't bring myself to fight those two!" Gabumon informed.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

At the same time the others were being chased, Patamon had found himself perched on a streetlight and feeling pretty down.  
"I flew out from the heat of the moment, but… I wonder what Takeru is doing right now?"  
"So, like, I said…" Patamon overheard a conversation between two high school girls. "If you want to meet up somewhere, it should totally be in front of Hachiko's statue."  
"Yeah, Hachiko's statue is totally the best place!"  
"Hachiko's statue…" Patamon perked up before flying off in the direction of the statue.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

We kept running as fast as we could but sticking together was kind of a bad idea as Pumpmon and Gotsumon could split up, which they did as we found Pumpmon right in front of our path.  
"Pumpmon!" Takeru shouted.  
"This is as far as you go." He said.  
"He cut us off from the front." observed Gabumon.  
"Get back, Takeru." I motioned him to get behind me but he made a surprised sound. We turned and saw that Gotsumon was behind us, meaning they had us boxed in.  
"Gotsumon!" I cried.  
"You're trapped!" He informed. We had almost nowhere to go except down a small open plot in between a few buildings. We found ourselves backed up against a fence. They was only one choice, as much as he didn't want to, Gabumon was going to have to evolve to get us out of this situation. The two walked up and had a tense stare-off with us.

"I quit." Pumpmon suddenly said.  
"Me too." Gotsumon agreed.  
"Huh?" The three of us were just confused.  
"Playing around in Shibuya sounds much more fun than fighting the Chosen Children!" The pumpkin puppet declared.  
"That's right!" The rock Digimon agreed once more. "Come hang out with us!"  
"Huh?" We said again. Lightning cracked again which meant only one thing.  
"V-Vamdemon's coming!" Pumpmon shouted.  
"You should go hide!" Gotsumon insisted. We quickly hid behind a brick wall that was part of a building, but there really wasn't anywhere to go from there.

"Where are the Chosen Children?" Vamdemon asked.  
"Unfortunately, we failed to catch them." Pumpmon told him, hopeful that he'd believe the lie.  
"We almost had them!" Gotsumon added.  
"You… pathetic liars!" The vampire shouted. "I have no more use for you. Night Raid!" The bats flew out of his cloak and began attacking the two Digimon.  
"Trick-or-Treat!" Pumpmon shouted his attack and a giant pumpkin materialized above Vamdemon's head. The bats quickly turned around and devoured the large vegetable.  
"Angry Rock!" Gotsumon launched a fast rock at Vamdemon but the vampire opened his eyes wide and the rock stopped a meter away from his face before bursting into dust. With nothing left to defend them, the bats swarmed the two Digimon. All we heard was their screams.

"Pumpmon!" Gabumon shouted.  
"Gotsumon!" Takeru cried. I motioned him away.  
"Don't look, Takeru!" I sheltered him. All that was left was a hatchet and a small rock that suddenly burst into data. That damned vampire just murdered those two in cold blood!  
"You three are next." We heard Vamdemon's footsteps coming closer. I could barely hold back the tears I was having for the two slain Digimon.  
"Those were good guys…" I muttered.  
"Yamato." Gabumon said.  
"You didn't have to kill them!" I roared at the merciless bloodsucker.

"Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" He charged right at Vamdemon full of rage and slammed the vampire right up against a wall. Vamdemon merely punched him away.  
"Those guys…" I muttered once more.  
"Fox Fire!" The attack hit Vamdemon and blew him upwards but he quickly resisted it.  
"It was just for a little while…"  
"Bloody Stream!"  
"But they were our friends!" The whip knocked Garurumon away. "Garurumon!"  
"Garurumon, super-evolve! WEREGARURUMON!" The werewolf commando bounced off the wall he was almost going to slam right through and bolted himself right back towards the vampire.  
"Go! WereGarurumon!" I ordered. The two clashed into each other causing a massive explosion of sound that shattered multiple windows and signs around them.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Patamon had found himself in a tree residing above the infamous dog statue, but Takeru was nowhere to be found.  
"Those girls said that if I waited here, I'd find him…" His thoughts were interrupted when he started hearing screams and looking in the distance to see signs suddenly exploding. That could only mean one thing… trouble. He took off in the same direction where he assumed that Takeru probably was.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

"They're over there!" Yamato pointed out as we ran after the two fighting Perfects. WereGarurumon had been thrown up against a building and quickly preformed backflips going up the wall to avoid taking a Bloody Stream right into the chest.  
"Kaiser Nail!" WereGarurumon counter attacked and his attack landed dead on Vamdemon that threw him right through the walls of an office building, but of course, that probably wasn't going to slow him down. The wolf jumped through the whole but was thrown out by a Night Raid attack.  
"WereGarurumon!" Yamato called out. The said Digimon had been knocked on his back on a roof and Vamdemon flew right above him.  
"Bloody Stream!" He proceeded to whip the poor weakened Digimon.  
"WereGarurumon!" Yamato cried. This was all my fault… If I hadn't gotten mad back then on the train… Patamon wouldn't have left us… We wouldn't have met Pumpmon and Gotsumon in Shibuya… And Pumpmon and Gotsumon… wouldn't have been killed by Vamdemon…! I closed my eyes to cry.  
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" I opened my eyes when I heard those words and looked up to see the Angel Digimon charging straight towards Vamdemon who had WereGarurumon at his mercy.

He swung his rod right towards the vampire, but Vamdemon dodged the attack. However, the attack did destroy the deadly whips that he had and freed WereGarurumon from the barrage.  
"Angemon?" He questioned.  
"Are you all right, WereGarurumon?"  
"Yes, somewhat."  
"Angemon!" I shouted.  
"Takeru's feelings reached Patamon!" Yamato said. That's what I did? Vamdemon just chuckled at the sight of the angel.  
"So you're the one who possesses holy powers."  
"Let's do this, Angemon." suggested WereGarurumon.  
"Yeah." Both Digimon charged right towards the vampire. He dodged WereGarurumon and then tried to hold back Angemon's rod. This allowed WereGarurumon to jump off a wall and strike Vamdemon in his undefended back which caused a massive blinding explosion of energy in the sky.

"I'll save this fight for later." Vamdemon laughed as he retreated. Guess he couldn't handle the two of them head on. Both Digimon flew back towards the ground before the devolved, landing on the ground exhausted. Funny enough, WereGarurumon devolved back into Gabumon, not Tsunomon. Maybe they're getting better at not using as much energy or something. We both ran to them and picked them up.  
"Gabumon…" Yamato said.  
"Patamon… Are you…?" I muttered as I started to feel tears forming. He probably knew why I was crying with what he said next.  
"Yeah, I'm okay this time, Takeru." He assured. Thank goodness, it wouldn't be a repeat of File Island. I don't know if I could handle that again.  
"I'm sorry for getting mad at you." I teared up.  
"Don't cry, Takeru."

A few minutes later, we quickly explained what happened to Patamon and were walking back to the station. We quickly made sure to call Mom on a payphone just to make sure she wasn't worried. She was thankful that we at least called to tell her we'd be a little late. After that, we solemnly walked back to the station when we passed a familiar store.  
"Onii-chan. Over there…" I pointed. I could see Pumpmon and Gotsumon in the store window trying on clothes again. They weren't there of course, but the event was just replaying in my mind, and I'm sure Yamato and Gabumon saw the same. My mind then drifted back to some of the other times we were with them, however short they were. We had barely known them and yet, it felt like some of the worst times to me, like the divorce or Angemon's sacrifice. That's the kind of impact they made on us. Sure, they were troublemakers, but in the end, they gave up their lives to try and save us from Vamdemon. One thing I'm certain, we're going to avenge their sacrifice by destroying that bloodsucker, somehow.  
"Let's go home." Yamato finally spoke up.  
"Yeah." I nodded as we continued on our way back home.

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 2nd, 1999. 1958 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

Meanwhile back in Odaiba, Tailmon was on a rooftop across from the Yagami's apartment complex and observing Hikari who was in her room working on some of her summer homework while Ross, Taichi and the Digimon were discussing their next move. Tailmon's mind was still going back to earlier events. Was this the ninth child, and why did she hesitate to strike?

Little did any of them know that the next hour would change everything…

* * *

And that was Chapter 34.

As it said above, the next chapter everything changes... but we all know why, that was something I kinda wished they kept it more secretive in the show, but what can you do?

Anyways, next chapter will come by the 18th and after that deadlines will be dropped until around December, but at that point, the story might be done.

Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank.**_ _ **"**_


	36. The Bonds of Fate! Tailmon!

Chapter 35!

Alright, first things first I got to mention. Apparently, Vamdemon has his headquarters in Daiba Park, not No. 6 Battery. I could've sworn he would hide on an island that is off limits to the public, but I guess not. I quickly went back and made those two changes. Miniscule, but I know someone would chew me out for that. Mostly the inner voice in my head (Thanks Chris Tidus, for that one.) 'It's Daiba Park! It's Daiba Park, you unobservant moron!'

Shoutouts to **Ultrahero74** , **FROSTDRAGON4875** , and **Kelrisathefiredemoness** for your favs and follows. Thank you very much.

Reviews are next. **Vietnam123** , well, here you go, the next chapter.

 **MadDogLucario96** , Times Square is right, that went from a mess to tragic fast though; as Chief Clancy Wiggum would say (with his tie stuck in the hot dog roller at the Kwik-E-Mart) "Oh boy, this is going get worse before it gets better."

Anyways, how's about we check in with the Yagami's?

* * *

 **Chapter 35: The Bonds of Fate! Tailmon!**

 _Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 2nd, 1999. 1951 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery__

After I got back from Jou's, I found that Hikari was sitting on couch as she was watching the news. There apparently was a fight at Tokyo Tower just a few minutes prior and the news were now talking to some witnesses about the incident. The next couple of hours were kinda of a bore, mostly sit around and watch TV, assist Yuuko with anything she needed, and do some summer homework just to knock that out of the way. It was almost close to eight when Taichi finally came back.

"I'm back!" He announced as he snuck Agumon into his room where Hikari and Guilmon were.  
"Welcome home. You're late." Yuuko greeted.  
"Our dads are enjoying themselves at a restaurant so they'll be really late." I told him.  
"I see." We both then heard the phone ring. "I'll get that!" I walked up with him to the phone just in case it was one of the others. "Hey, Yagami residence. Hello?"  
"Taichi? It's Jou."  
"Oh, Jou, did you find the ninth child?" Maybe he got lucky and found the kid sometime after I left his place.  
"No, I didn't get any luck at all." He informed. "No one else besides us moved from Hikarigaoka!"  
"That can't be! There should be one!"  
"Yeah, they're surely must be someone else from there with how many kids there were in those schools." I insisted.  
"But I've called everyone in all of the phone books. The only phone book we haven't touched yet is yours, guys."  
"I see… I didn't want to overburden you earlier today, but I'll give you ours first thing tomorrow." Taichi said.  
"It's our only lead now, so get it to me as soon as possible!"  
"Alright, we got it." I assured him before we heard him hang up.

The two of us walked into his room to see Agumon and Guilmon chatting it up with each other and Hikari at her desk working on some homework with Miko at her feet.  
"So, how did your search go, guys? No luck?" Taichi asked. We both shook our heads.  
"We got done pretty quick as we didn't have as many areas to search but we couldn't find a single trace of this kid. We went back home and I stopped to check on Jou while Hikari found Miko and went back home. We saw on the news that Tokyo Tower had a fight, was that you?" I inquired.  
"Yeah, Mimi-kun and Sora had a run-in with DeathMeramon at the tower and MetalGreymon took care of him."  
"MetalGreymon? Did you not devolve into Koromon?" Guilmon questioned.  
"Nope, just back into Agumon." The yellow dinosaur said. Hmm, that's new. Maybe our Digimon are starting to get more used to evolving to the Perfect-Level. Who really knows though?  
"Sorry we couldn't help find the ninth child." Hikari apologized.  
"Not your fault at all." Taichi claimed. "We just have to keep looking."

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Across the road on the roof of another building, Tailmon was observing the group through a mini-telescope similar to the one Taichi owned. She had been observing Hikari for a while now. She had suspected her to be the ninth child, but when the opportunity to kill her arose, she hesitated and did not strike and that was greatly bothering her. She remembers back to earlier in the day and replayed the events in her head. It was right there, she just needed to swing her claws and that could've been the end of everything and yet, the girl still lives.

"Why?" She said to herself. "Why wasn't I able to kill her as easily as I should have?" Tailmon looked through the scope again and got a better look at Miko. "A pet cat, huh? She has it so easy. She's given her food and she takes naps all day. Sometimes she'll pay attention to her owners." She looked away. "That's right, I am being cynical. I never had anyone who accepted me for who I was. Her memories soon began to recall times long ago involving a small dog looking Digimon with a strange collar around its neck. "When I was in my Child-Level, Plotmon, I was pushed around by Vamdemon every day." She remembered the abuse she would suffer at the hands of Vamdemon, like being whipped by him. "And whenever something when wrong, he'd always say: 'I'll make you suffer the same pain every time you look at me with those eyes. Understand?' Even as I became more skilled and loyal to him, he'd still knock me to the ground every day. Just because he didn't like my eyes."

She pulled off one of her claw gloves to reveal and 'x' shaped scar on the top of her paws.  
"This is a scar that Vamdemon gave me. I was born with these eyes, I can't help it!" She stopped her train of thought when she though back to what she had said. "Born? Where was I born anyway? What was I doing before I met Vamdemon? I can't remember."  
"Thinking of old times?" A voice said from behind her. The speaker was a Digimon dressed in a weird outfit with a long cape, a witch's hat, and a sun shaped staff in his gloved hands.  
"I've told you to stop reading my mind without my permission!" She turned to the Digimon who was floating a few meters off the roof.  
"Sorry." The magician bowed his head in shame. "That's not what I meant to do."  
"Hurry and find the ninth child, Wizarmon!" He sighed at the order.  
"Yes, I know." He then flew away from her before Tailmon turned her attention back to Hikari who was now playing with Miko on their apartment's patio.

Back on the streets, Wizarmon was standing around observing some of the children who were still out of their homes at this late hour. He then looked to the Crest in his hand.  
"No reaction at all." He said before flying yet again. He was flying over the nearby Ariake Forest when the Crest began to glow. "It's glowing! But why here?" He moved the Crest away from his eyes to see a bird cawing at him from its nest. It was nothing more than clothes hangers and some scraps of cloth but what was lying in it was the eye opener. "The Digivice!" He threw out a small ball of energy that struck the bird and forced it to leave its nest so he could obtain the Digivice.

"Hey, Wizarmon! What are you doing over there?" A voice annoying to Wizarmon approached. The wizard quickly hid the Digivice in one of his pockets and turned to see PicoDevimon approaching him.  
"Oh, nothing."  
"I don't think doing nothing would've led you here. You found something, didn't you?"  
"Well, I guess I can't hide it now."  
"What?"  
"This world is more entertaining than I thought it would be." Wizarmon pulled out a bottle of alcohol. "I ended up getting drunk. Hiccup!" He slurred, putting on the charade of being drunk.  
"Not you, too." The bat clearly bought it. "If you keep that up, you'll be wiped out just like Pumpmon and Gotsumon!"  
"Please don't tell Vamdemon-sama about this. Okay?" He handed him the bottle.  
"Yeah, yeah. Geez, all of Tailmon's friends are useless dolts!" PicoDevimon flew away with the bottle.  
"I can't hand this Digivice over to Vamdemon. But if the Digivice is here… where is the ninth child?"

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We were all back in the living room and eating some watermelon as we watching the news. Agumon and Guilmon were hiding under the table and nabbing any slices of the sweet melon they could get.  
"In continuation, Tokyo is flooded with eye-witness reports on these mysterious, large animals, with the most recent spotting in Shibuya Center. What's more, a large number of young women with acute anemia have been found collapsed on Shibuya's streets, and investigation on the two cases are related is now in progress. And now for the weather." I turned off the TV after that.

"He's feeding faster." Hikari said, referring to our theory that the anemia was Vamdemon drinking the blood of those women like the vampire he is.  
"Last night, it was just two women, now the night has barely started and he's already struck multiple times." Ross observed.  
"We've got to find a way to kill Vamdemon before things get really bad." I informed as the phone rang. "I'll get it!" I told Mom as I picked it up.  
"Taichi?" Yamato's voice said on the other end.  
"Oh, Yamato. Did you see the TV?" I asked as Ross got close to me to be able to hear the call.  
"I didn't have to, I was there in Shibuya!"  
"Then… it was you they mentioned on TV!" I decided to take the call from my room and Ross and the Digimon followed along. We closed the door and put the phone on speaker.

"Vamdemon attacked us." Yamato began. "He even killed his own subordinates!"  
"What?!" I was shocked. Ross, on the other hand, wasn't.  
"So? He's an evil villain, those guys take out their own lackeys all the time." Ross pointed out.  
"True, but that was just in the movies or television, not reality!" shouted Yamato, who seemed pretty upset for whatever reason. Ross nodded his head in understanding. "Taichi, Ross, he's really dangerous. We can't tell what he'll do next! We need to find the ninth child quick!"  
"The ninth child is dead if we don't find him before Vamdemon does!" I reminded.  
"We know, but somehow this kid just keeps alluding us. There's got to be something we're missing." concerned Ross.  
"Well, look, I've got to hang up now; this is just a payphone I'm on. But we need to come up with a better plan tomorrow, because we're running out of time!" Yamato informed as he hung up.  
"What do you think we should do?" Ross asked.  
"I don't know." I sighed. "I really don't know."

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back on the roof, Tailmon's observations were interrupted when she heard a sound.  
"Is that you, Wizarmon?" She was correct as the wizard floated down before her. "What's wrong? Have you found the ninth child?"  
"No, I haven't, but…"  
"But what?" He reached into his cape and pulled out the Digivice. "The Digivice! Why do you have that?"  
"I found it in a crow's nest in Ariake Forest."  
"Then the ninth child must be near there."  
"No. The ninth child is…" He trailed off.  
"The ninth child is…?"  
"Well… Tailmon."  
"What?"  
"I think the ninth child… Could be somewhere deep inside your heart."

Tailmon's eyes widened on that suggestion, as almost if something inside her suddenly clicked.  
"Inside my heart?" She questioned.  
"Your heart is put under tight locks and kept prisoner. I think perhaps the key to finding the ninth child is hidden within that closed heart of yours. Are you scared of retrieving the memories of your younger self? Memories of Nyaromon? Why aren't you trying to remember? Take back the memories you've lost! Remember your past without fear!" Tailmon didn't take those words kindly as she quickly put her claws up.  
"You… Did Vamdemon send you here?!" She believed that all his words were some sort of test or trap laid by Vamdemon.  
"I fight alongside you." Those words made Tailmon lower her claws slightly. "Vamdemon has nothing to do with this."

"Before I met you, I was always alone… I traveled alone, unable to make any friends." His mind drifted back to those days in the Digital World where he was nothing more than a drifter. "I was starving, tired, and full of loneliness… Even when I collapsed, no one stopped to help me." He remembered the day that he collapsed on the main street of a town in the desert and was just merely left to die right there. "I thought my death would come all too soon… Until you came." Tailmon appeared standing above him and handed him a bowl of water before he passed out.  
" _Hey, what's wrong? Hey! Hang in there!"_ The wizard wasn't very sure what happened next. The next memory after that was waking up near a campfire with Tailmon. " _You're awake."  
" _Were you the one who saved me?"  
"I didn't do anything that noble. I just couldn't leave you lying there."  
"I'll be leaving now."_ _He didn't get too far as his whole body was still exhausted.  
" _Your body won't be able to withstand it yet."  
" _I'm grateful for your help, but I have nothing to give you in return."  
"I see. You've lived a long time being alone."  
"What?"  
" _When you live too long in solitude, your heart becomes cold. It happens to everyone. Even me."___

"I don't remember that." Tailmon claimed.  
"I was about to die with a heart of stone due to my loneliness. The one who freed me from that loneliness, Tailmon… Was you. Yes… I remember that this is what you told me back then…  
" _I've always been waiting; waiting and searching, but I never find her!"  
"Waiting? Searching? For who?"  
" _I don't know. I don't remember anymore. But I was waiting for someone."__

"Waiting? Me?" questioned Tailmon.  
"Yes, that's what you said."  
"Who was it I was waiting for? Who was I looking for?"  
"Miko! Where are you going, Miko? You can't come out here this late." They heard Hikari say on the apartment balcony. "Stay inside." She put the cat back into the apartment before turning around and looking back into the city. Tailmon's mind was wracked with questions about what Wizarmon was saying. She didn't get much time to think as Wizarmon flew off right towards Hikari.  
"Let's set things straight.  
"Wait!" She cried before jumping right after him.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

After I put Miko back inside the apartment, I was just minding my own business and leaning against the balcony wall when suddenly I saw something from the nearby roof floating down my way. The larger creature that was floating down looked like some sort of magician. Was this a Digimon?  
"You…"  
"I am Wizarmon." He interrupted. Yep, he was definitely a Digimon.  
"Y-You're flying!" I observed. After I said that, a familiar white cat bounced of the railing and preformed a front flip that landed right in front of me. "You're the one I saw this afternoon! You came back! You really are one of Agumon and Guilmon's friends, right?" Wizarmon, who had landed right next to her, placed one of those Digivices the guys had in her paw before pushing her right towards me.  
"What's this? Why do you…?" I touched it and suddenly it began to shine a bright yellow light. The cat looked more surprised than me about this.

"Wizarmon? Is this girl the ninth Chosen Child?"  
"Yes, Tailmon." He said as he took the device from her. Wait, what? I'm a Chosen Child? I'm the one the others have been looking for?  
"Then who's her Digimon?"  
"Think back. Who were you waiting for?"  
"Yes… I do remember waiting for someone. Ever since I was in my Baby-Level, Nyaromon, I was waiting for someone. Day in and day out… I waited, and waited, and waited… But no one ever came. When I became Plotmon, I went on a journey to find her instead of passively waiting. But the one who appeared in my path… was not who I was waiting for. It was Vamdemon. Then the days of despair began, and before I knew it, I'd forgotten… I forgot that I was waiting for someone… Searching for someone…"  
"What are you talking about?" I asked. "This ninth Chosen Child you're talking about, you mean me, right?"

"Who's there?" I heard Taichi open the door. I turned to see both Ross and Taichi's eyes widened.  
"Hikari! Get away from her!" Ross shouted.  
"Onii-chan! Ross-chan!"  
"What are you doing to Hikari?" Taichi demanded.  
"Wait. Listen to us first!" Wizarmon tried to explain.  
"Hikari! I said to get away!" Ross said again.  
"Those guys are evil!" informed Taichi. I ran up between Wizarmon and Tailmon.  
"No, you're wrong! Tailmon was looking for the ninth child and…" I didn't get to finish as Agumon launched a fireball at our direction. "Stop!"  
"Look out!" I felt Tailmon push me out of the way before she took that fireball in her face.  
"Tailmon!"

"Tailmon!" I cried as I ran up to her. She quickly got back up, not looking worse for wear.  
"Hikari. I'm okay. This is nothing."  
"Hold your fire, you idiot! You nearly hit Hikari!" Ross scolded Agumon.  
"Tailmon protected Hikari..." Taichi muttered in shock.  
"Now do you remember the memories that you've locked away?" Wizarmon asked the small cat.  
"Yes. I was waiting for the ninth Chosen Child. Hikari. I was waiting for you!"  
"Waiting… for me?"  
"I was looking for you everywhere. Hikari!" She ran up and hugged me.  
"Tailmon…" I reciprocated the hug. "Onii-chan, Ross-chan, Tailmon is my Digimon!"  
"Tailmon is Hikari's Digimon?" Taichi questioned.  
"Hikari in the ninth child?" inquired Ross.  
"Yes." Wizarmon answered the both of them. "Hikari is the ninth Chosen Child."  
"And I'm her Digimon." Tailmon walked forward. "I swear I'll protect her!"  
"Well, sorry for the cold reception, but you have to understand with what you did…" Agumon remembered.  
"My snout still feels sore after you kicked it in." Guilmon rubbed his nose. I guess they had a fight with her sometime before, which would explain why they were so hostile to her.

"Tailmon. Even if what you say is true, who is this guy?" Taichi pointed at the wizard Digimon.  
"Wizarmon is… He's my friend." She told them.  
"At your service." He bowed to the both of them.  
"He's also the one who found the Digivice."  
"Where?" Ross asked.  
"In Ariake Forest, a crow had gotten its claws on it." He explained.  
"You think we can just believe that?" Taichi still held some doubts.  
"I don't care if you believe it or not. I only follow after Tailmon."

"Did you guys hear that? I'm one of you guys!" I cheered.  
"Yeah…" The both looked more disappointed and worried.  
"Looks like we were right from the start." Taichi whispered to Ross.  
"Yeah, that's why we couldn't find the kid, because she was under our nose the entire time. I said that everything was already too close to home."  
"Now it is home."  
"What's wrong, guys? Why do you look so-?" I suddenly remembered their stories and why they were like that. "Oh, right. Vamdemon is after the ninth child… so that means… he's after… me." Great, I felt excited a minute ago, now I just feel worried.

"Here." Wizarmon handed Taichi my Digivice. "You should hold onto the Digivice."  
"Why give Taichi the Digivice?" Agumon asked.  
"If Vamdemon finds out that Hikari is the ninth Chosen Child and Tailmon is her Digimon, both of them will be in danger. As long as you have it, both of them are safe."  
"Okay." Taichi conceded. "I'll hold onto this. So, what are you going to do now?"  
"Hikari needs her Crest. The real one."  
"The real one?" Ross questioned. Tailmon pulled out a small necklace similar to the ones Taichi and Ross have around their necks, except the little emblem was pink.  
"This is a copy we used to find Hikari's Digivice. Vamdemon has Hikari's real Crest. We have to take it back."

"You guys will wait here." Wizarmon told us as he and Tailmon walked to the balcony railing.  
"Wait!" Taichi tried to stop them. "Where is Vamdemon located?"  
"Over there." He pointed to a familiar island not too far from the park.  
"Daiba Park? God, he was practically next door to us." muttered Ross.  
"We'll come with you!" Taichi insisted on joining them.  
"It's too dangerous for you two to come. We'll handle this ourselves." Wizarmon picked up Tailmon and flew off towards the Battery.  
"Tailmon!" I shouted.  
"They left." observed Agumon.  
"In a hurry too." added Guilmon.  
"Will those guys be okay on their own?" Taichi worried.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The two Digimon flew quietly through the large fog bank and soon came within sight of the Park.  
"Hikari's real Crest is within Vamdemon's secret base." Wizarmon reminded. "He should be hiding it in his room." The two of them landed in the clearing where a Bakemon approached them.  
"Wait!" The guard stopped them. "Vamdemon-sama is out for dinner. No one is allowed to enter until he comes back at dawn."  
"We came here to switch shifts." He then threw an energy ball that hit the ghost and gave him a confused look.  
"Huh? What was I doing here again?"  
"You were going to switch with us and go home to sleep, remember?"  
"Oh yeah. See you." He took off and floated away.  
"Wait! Don't forget to leave us the key."  
"Oh yeah, the key. Here." He threw it to them before floating away again.  
"Thank you."  
"Take care of the rest!"  
"Good night." Both Digimon said as they ran into the base's chambers.

Deep in the catacombs of the pocket dimension, Wizarmon used the key that opened up the gate that led to Vamdemon's coffin where they assumed the Crest was.  
"Where's the Crest?" Tailmon asked. "Wizarmon, we have to hurry!"  
"No need to rush. There's still time left before dawn." He used his staff to try and track down the Crest. "Could it be… inside here?" They opened it up and looked under the pillow to find the Crest lying there. "Here it is!"  
"It's the real Crest!" However, the celebration would be tragically cut short as they heard the sounds of bats indicating one thing: Vamdemon was back early. The fight with WereGarurumon and Angemon force him to cut short on his feeding and he was returning to his coffin to rest up. Wizarmon hurried and closed the coffin, but no matter what, they were dead to rights.

"What are you doing in here?" Vamdemon asked, in a tone that sounded like he already knew the answer.  
"Nothing!" Wizarmon tried to lie.  
"It seems you're searching for something. Mind if I help you?" He pulled out a Crest. "What are you planning to do after stealing the real Crest? Betray me, is that it?" He growled as he crushed the fake Crest in his hands. Wizarmon charged right at the vampire but he merely floated aside and Wizarmon crashed onto the stone floor.  
"Wizarmon!" Tailmon ran up to him.  
"I'm okay."  
"Those eyes." Vamdemon referred to the glare that Tailmon was giving him. "It's those eyes again. They're like a sword pointed in my direction. But did you think a small thing like you could do something against me? Did you think I would forgive traitors?"  
"I haven't betrayed you. I've never sided with anyone but Tailmon from the start!" Wizarmon informed as he stood in front of Tailmon to protect her.  
"Fools. Night Raid!" The two of them tried to hold off the horde of bats, but there were too many and the two of them were expelled back outside into the park.

"Pull yourself together, Wizarmon!" Tailmon tried to help him up.  
"Yeah…"  
"Playing a game of beautiful friendship, are we?" The vampire Digimon taunted.  
"Say that again?!" Tailmon shouted in anger.  
"Since you get along so well, I'll allow you to die together." He summoned another group of bats but Wizarmon was more prepared for this.  
"Thunder Cloud!" A powerful bolt of lightning fired out of his staff and fried the bats and even surprised Vamdemon who had to deflect the attack with his cape and began to cause a great thunder storm above them.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Hikari and I were staring out at the balcony while Ross had gone back inside and was on the phone. He said something about wanting to know about how that Digivice got into a crow's nest.  
"Alright, I got it. Thanks. Night, Takeo." He hung up the phone and walked over to us. "No doubt about it now, that Digivice was sitting on the table when Takeo came over with our stuff. Apparently, he thought the Digivice was in fact a Tamagotchi like we kinda said to Fujiyama-sensei on the bus and he placed it on your bed, which must have fell on the floor and then Miko must have knocked it off into the streets or something. That would explain why she was gone so long yesterday." Both of us nodded at that theory before we all sighed.  
"So, what exactly do we do now?" I asked.  
"Well, we wait for Tailmon, right?" Hikari said which made Ross chuckle.  
"Hikari, I've said it before and I'll say it again, you're sometimes way too kind. I mean, you were willing to believe her and shield her, even after everything she did."  
"Well, you guys never mentioned her, so I didn't know, especially when I invited her in while you were at Jou-senpai's earlier, Ross-chan." We looked at her when she said that.  
"When we told you what was going on, I thought it was a given to stay away from any Digimon that wasn't any of the partner Digimon because every other one was serving Vamdemon." I explained.

"You and Tailmon… Just like Mom." Ross muttered. "Being the first to defend Tailmon and all that, that's something she would've done as well."  
"Yeah, you've mentioned before that Hikari reminds you of her." I pointed out.  
"The personalities are almost uncanny."  
"I wish I could've met her." admitted Hikari.  
"Yeah, me too. We actually all met each other because of her… when we flew to Corpus to attend the funeral…" I remembered.  
"Yes, we did. I wish I could've had more time with her. Sometimes I wonder what would've happened if she was still alive. Would Dad ever moved to Japan? Would I ever met you guys? Would I… well, there's a lot of 'What ifs?'." Ross trailed off.  
"Ross-chan? What exactly did you mean by 'something she would've done'?" Hikari asked.  
"Well, one of the few memories I had with her was after I got into a fight with a kid on the playground. Three-year old me was a scrapper even back then!" He laughed. "Anyways, after Mom was cleaning me up and scolding me for fighting, which wasn't my fault, it was self-defense; she told me this piece of advice 'Always look for the good in others.' Pretty good advice if you think about it."  
"That really does sound a lot like Hikari." I roughed up her hair.  
"Quit it!" She giggled.

Our little trip down memory lane was interrupted when we heard storm clouds by the bridge.  
"What's that?" I questioned.  
"Tailmon and the others are fighting!" Agumon guessed.  
"Vamdemon must have come back sooner than they thought." added Ross.  
"Will they be okay?" Hikari worried. The storm got worst, and I made up my mind.  
"Agumon, we're joining them!" I tried to run but I was grabbed by the arm. "Ross? Let me go!"  
"No. You and Agumon have already done your fighting today. Who knows how long MetalGreymon can fight." Ross reasoned. He actually made a good point. Agumon must be somewhat exhausted and we've never truly had our Digimon evolve to Perfect-Level twice in one day. "Listen, let me and Guilmon do this."  
"Yeah, ever since I've gotten here, I haven't done any fighting yet! Allow me to have my fair share." Guilmon claimed, itching for a fight. I quickly chuckled.  
"Now I can see why you two are partners, your fighting spirits are unquenchable." Both of them smiled at that compliment. I stepped back and allowed the two of them to go fight.  
"Wish us luck. Let's go, Guilmon!" Ross and Guilmon soon sprinted fast out the door while Hikari and I turned our attention back towards the storm.  
"Onii-chan… Do you think he can help them?" Hikari wondered.  
"We can only hope, Hikari."

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Vamdemon used his cape to deflect a very powerful lightning strike that Wizarmon sent his way before opening it once again.  
"You should know the consequences of angering me!" Tailmon charged the vampire once more but she was merely swatted away.  
"Thunder Cloud!" Wizarmon launched another strike as he jumped in front of his friend. Vamdemon held out his hands and the lightning reflected off them and returned back to the sender, knocking him down.  
"Bloody Stream!" His red whip tangled around the wizard and he begun to swing him around. "I'll finish you off first, Wizarmon!"  
"Stop!" Tailmon shouted. "If you're going to kill someone, Vamdemon, kill me instead!"  
"Those eyes again. They're not merely reflecting your hostility. They shine with the light of hope. The light that holds belief in your dreams."  
"That's right! I've managed to live this long because of my belief!"  
"Because of mutual trust? Devoted friendship? Such fleeting dreams only show what a fool you really are. There is no place for dreams in this world!"  
"As long as I keep believing, my dreams and hopes will continue to exist! In order to make my dreams a reality… I will defeat you!"  
"What?"  
"If I don't beat you, I won't be able to regain my true self!"

"Regain your true self?" Vamdemon was confused by those words. What exactly did Tailmon mean by that? "You can't be…" Suddenly, everything clicked for him. "The ninth Digimon?!" Tailmon jumped again, but like before she was swatted away. "If that's true, then that changes everything! I'll send your beloved friend to hell first! Night Raid!" The bats swarmed Wizarmon before he was picked up by them and they flew away.  
"Wizarmon!" cried Tailmon. The bats then dropped him into the bay "Wizarmon!" Tailmon had tears in her eyes.  
"Tailmon…!" He called out before he slowly disappeared under the waves.  
"Wizarmon…" Tailmon muttered. She was utterly devastated by the sudden turn of events. The quiet sounds of the ocean were interrupted by the sound of a roar coming from the fog bank.  
"Cavalry has arrived, Tailmon!" They heard Ross shout as he and Growmon approached the park.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Ross!" Tailmon yelled out as we approached the cat and the vampire. There was no sign of Wizarmon and there were tears in Tailmon's eyes. Not good, Vamdemon must have killed the wizard. Nothing to do about that now but to avenge him by killing that bloodsucker once and for all! I jumped off Growmon's shoulder and let him go to work.  
"Exhaust Flame!" The vampire held his hands up and reflected the fireball that crashed right in front of Tailmon and I who were taking cover.  
"It's an honor to see you appear before me voluntarily." Vamdemon addressed me. "Though, I was expecting to be greeted by the boy with the goggles."  
"Eh, too bad. We'll be your executioners tonight." I boasted. The vampire gave a cruel laugh.  
"So you think. Bloody Stream!" The red whips that Vamdemon sent out clashed against Growmon and put him on his knees.  
"Make this an even fight! Evolve, Growmon!"  
"Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!"

"Slaughter him, MegaloGrowmon!" I ordered. I know I was sounding a bit more violent tonight, but Fang-Face has really pushed me, especially now that I know that he has Hikari in his crosshairs. I've just begun to get my life back in order, and I'm not letting him ruin it now! MegaloGrowmon made a quick slice with his arm blades that forced Vamdemon to take off and float away just to stay out of close quarters range as he flew over to the water.  
"Atomic Blaster!" Vamdemon eyes widened and he quickly dodged it, but his eyes did show some panic. We've got some advantage on him. Vamdemon knew that if he took a hit from that attack, it might not kill him, but would leave him wounded and opened to be finished off. He flew right back towards the dinosaur and the two Digimon began have a long, drawn out fight. Attack and counterattack, the two traded blows for blows until MegaloGrowmon actually got him with a swipe and nailed him into the ground.  
"You got him! Finish it!" I called out.  
"Atomic Blas-"  
"Bloody Stream!"  
"AHHHHHHH!"

My eyes widened in horror. Somehow, Vamdemon threw out a quick Bloody Stream right into MegaloGrowmon's chest while he was charging his attack. There was a powerful explosion around his chest and the dust kicked up. When it finally cleared, Vamdemon had vanished and Guilmon was on the ground clutching his chest.  
"GUILMON!" I shouted as both Tailmon and I ran up to him, oblivious of any danger I could be in. I ran up right next to him and grabbed his claws. "Guilmon! Look at me! Stay with me, buddy!"  
"Save that for the dying. I'm okay. Ugh, cheap shot!" Okay, well, that's a relief. Then my ears rang out with the sound of that evil laughter from that vampire. I turned around and Vamdemon was floating right behind us.

"If a Chosen Child purposefully came all this way here then that must mean that Tailmon really is the ninth Digimon." Crap, please God Almighty don't let him know who Hikari is.  
"Wh-What are you talking about? I'm not the ninth Digimon!" She tried to feign innocence, but the writing was on the wall for us.  
"I'll know that for certain soon enough"  
"What do you mean, bloodsucker!?" I questioned. We were suddenly swarmed with the bats before they all gathered on Tailmon and picked her up.  
"I'll use Tailmon as bait to lure out the ninth child. After I gather all of the children, she'll pick out the child for me. Even without the Crest, I'll find that ninth child easily!"  
"{You son of a bitch!}" I cursed out in English. He clearly didn't know what I said as he turned around.  
"See you again." He laughed as he flew away.  
"Wait! Tailmon!"  
"Ross!" She screamed as they vanished into the fog, leaving behind the sound of Vamdemon laughing once more.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

After seeing and hearing a large explosion at the park, both Taichi and I were getting worried.  
"Onii-chan? Tailmon, she'll come back, right?" I asked.  
"Yeah, sure. I'm sure they're all okay and Ross and Guilmon are bringing her back as we speak." Taichi tried to assure, but I get a feeling that he was being pretty worried too.  
"Tailmon… please be okay…"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I walked back over to Guilmon who was still lying on the ground, taking some deep breaths as the fight and cruel shot left him exhausted.  
"You okay?" I asked again. All the fire in me had been extinguished.  
"Yeah, I'm fine, just give me a few hours and I'll be back on my feet."  
"Come on." I helped him up and carried him over my shoulder, or well, let him hang on to me as he tried to walk on his own two feet. "It's almost ten and we're gonna need our rest for tomorrow."  
"I'm sorry, Ross, I almost-"  
"Almost had him, no, you didn't. You had him completely and he pulls a dirty trick, not your fault at all."  
"So, what now?"  
"Who knows, I'm afraid we're just going to have to wait and see." The two of us slowly walked back home feeling utterly awful. Why, oh why, can't I ever do it? Why must I always fail? So many were depending on me and I failed in spectacular fashion. And to make matters worse, there was only one thing on my mind now.

How the hell am I even supposed to look Hikari in the eye now…

* * *

And that was Chapter 35.

I hope you've all been enjoying this story because I'm afraid this is where the uploads are going to be a bit more stretched out now that classes are starting again.

Now that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop all together, but it's just meaning I'll have less free time. I'll still keep it going, but don't be surprised if there are week long hiatus or longer.

'til then, take care.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	37. The Fairy of Odaiba! Lilimon Blooms!

Here is Chapter 36. The Siege of Odaiba begins!

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** and **God of the Challenge** for their reviews.

During the parts with the Bakemon, I'd suggest you listen to Glenn Frey's _'Flip City'_ from _**Ghostbusters II**_ (which I really love, despite most people calling me a fool for that) during those parts. It just makes it better, well, to me at least.  
Cop 1: "Was this a big dinosaur or a little dinosaur? Ah, a skeleton. Which way was it headed?"  
Cop 2: "Wait a second. What was chasing you in the park? The park bench was chasing you? I see."  
Cop 3: "What? Wait a second. Lieutenant! I think you'd better talk to this guy."  
Lieutenant: "I'm busy here!"  
Cop 3: "It's some dock supervisor down at Pier 34."  
Lieutenant: "What's the problem?!"  
Cop 3: "He says the Titanic just arrived!"  
*Cuts to Pier 34 where the wreck of the Titanic shows up and it's ghostly victims are finally getting off.*  
Cheech Marin: "Well, better late than never."

Anyways, let us begin with unleashing hell on the unsuspecting district...

* * *

 **Chapter 36: The Fairy of Odaiba! Lilimon Blooms!**

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 2nd, 1999. 2101 Hours.  
 _P.O.V. – Third Person__

It had been a very long day for Tachikawa Keisuke. The Nashville born man had to stay very late for his office work and the gathering fog was also making things more difficult for the rail system coming into Odaiba. He looked at his watch once more and sighed.  
"Oh man…" He muttered to himself.  
"Excuse us for interrupting your travel plans, but this train will be slowing down due to heavy fog." The intercom voice said. Keisuke just sighed once more.

At the same time, little did anyone in the district know what horrors were soon to be unleashed. Vamdemon after escaping from the Chosen Child with Tailmon in tow, moved to place himself on top of the Fuji TV building and begun to wave his hands. He was creating a powerful fog bank that would cut off Odaiba from the outside world. He knew the ninth child was somewhere inside, so he was going to make sure the child could not escape.  
"Soon this barrier of fog will be completed. Then this land will transform into the underworld." He laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

I was sitting outside the apartment in the nearby garden with Palmon who had put her vines in the ground and was trying to drink the ground for its nutrients like the plant creature she was. However, it didn't sound like she was enjoying it.  
"Tokyo's soil doesn't taste very good." She admitted.  
"Hey, did you know? This place used to be a part of the sea until recently." I smiled at her when I gave that fact before handing her the water bottle in my hand. "You can have this." I opened it and started pouring it on her vines.  
"Thank you." I suddenly began to hear footsteps approaching and looked up to see Dad walking towards us. I quickly threw a yellow sheet I brought and covered up Palmon to keep Dad from seeing her.  
"Shhhh! Quiet!" I told her. Dad was only a few feet away before he got a better look at me.  
"Huh? Mimi! Is that you, Mimi?"  
"Papa!" I cried as I finally got Palmon to stop moving.  
"What are you doing out here at this hour?"  
"Nothing in particular! I'm just here to pick you up!" I got up and picked up Patamon before walking home with Dad. "You came home late today."  
"The train took its time because of this fog. Hey, I've been wondering, what's inside that blanket?" I quickly grabbed him and started moving faster just to avoid that question.  
"Let's hurry home, Papa! Mama is worried!"  
"Okay."

We finally got home a few minutes later and my Mom, Satoe, was already waiting for us at the door with dinner for Dad as we had eaten earlier.  
"Welcome home!" She said as cheerful as she ever was. I took Palmon into my room while Dad got to eating.  
"I'm sorry." I apologized as Palmon found her way out of my hat and sheet. "It'd be nice if you got away with pretending to be a stuffed animal, but I don't want them to think I have horrible taste."  
"Horrible taste? You mean me…?" Oh, shoot, why did I say that?  
"Don't think too much into it!" I tried to walk back on that comment.  
"I made kimchee fried rice and topped it with whipped cream and strawberries." I heard Mom explain to Dad about what he was eating in the living room. "How is it?"  
"It's lovely! This tastes really good!"  
"Thank goodness! Eat as much as you want! Say 'Ahh!'" I had to chuckle, I don't think I've ever once heard my parents ever argue. It feels like their honeymoon never ended.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

I was back across the bridge at the cram school where I was going over to pick up a grade on a test I took a few days before camp, and before this whole Digimon thing started. My heart sank when I saw the grade I got.  
"A fifty-four. This is the worst grade I've ever gotten in my life."  
"Cheer up!" Gomamon said as he popped his head out of my duffle bag. "Life is full of ups and downs!"  
"I should call home to tell them I'm being kept after classes today." I referred to my parents. I dialed the number to the house on my cell phone but got a strange answer.  
"The number you've dialed is not in any available service areas."  
"That's odd." I muttered. "There's no reception."

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

Static on every channel. I was sitting around the apartment while none of the channels worked.  
"No! C'mon, work!" I shouted at the TV. I tried different positions to try to get it to work but nothing was happening. "Aw man… It was just getting good!" This could mean only one thing however. It means Dad is going to be staying really late tonight.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Ishida Hiroaki was getting some change back for the soft drink he purchased at the vending machine. Hiroaki worked at the Fuji TV building and was once again working another late night shift. He put the change back in his wallet when he stopped and looked at an old family photo he still kept. It was taken in the mountains back when he was still married to Natsuko and their family was still together. He often wondered why he still had it; maybe it was a reminder of better times? He sighed before he took a sip of his drink before he saw one of his co-workers run by.

"What's up, Chioka?"  
"You were awake, Ishida-san? We've got huge trouble! None of our station's transmissions are working!"  
"What?"  
"No one knows what's causing it! It could be a system crash or something faulty in electronical devices. Both transmissions and reception are down!"

The cause of this was because of the fog barrier that Vamdemon was putting up. He didn't want the ninth child escaping from Odaiba, as he was already handling that aspect of keeping the population in or out. He also didn't want anyone inside to contact the outside world and was making sure that all communications were down, hence why he was on the Fuji TV building.  
"No one will escape. And that includes, of course, the ninth child!" He sadistically laughed to the heavens.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"Due to heavy fog in Odaiba, we will not be able to provide any train service to that area. It may take some time before service is brought back to normal." The intercom in the train station informed. I tried to use a phone booth to call home but that wasn't working either. All it did was spit back up my phone card.  
"Not even the public phone booths work… This is getting to be a bother."  
"I see this world has its own problems, too…" I heard Gomamon say from the bag.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"The broadcasting system went haywire ever since the fog showed up." Chioka explained to his co-workers.  
"So it happened when I was tossing out the papers." Hiroaki guessed.  
"None of our system phones or cellphones are working either." A female named Yuki added. Hiroaki had enough of this and put on his coat. "Where are you going?"  
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to investigate. That's our job."  
"Very well." She and Chioka followed along. "Sakurada-kun, let's go!" She called out to the fourth person in their group, a somewhat heavy set man named Seki who was listening to some Buddhist chants on his Sony boom box.  
"O-Okay." He followed along.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Taichi and Hikari never even asked anything when I got home. They could just see the look on my face and the fact that I didn't have Tailmon with me that everything had gone wrong. It wasn't until we had gone to bed before Taichi at least asked what was wrong with Guilmon when I explained everything. It was almost eleven when Hikari got up again, and walked over to the patio door.  
"Tailmon…" She muttered.  
"Wait until tomorrow." Taichi told her. "I'll call everyone in the morning so we can go save her."  
"Hikari-chan. You're not the only one who can't sleep because you're worried about her." Agumon said.  
"Yeah, you don't have to deal with the wracking guilt of failure." I sighed from the futon on the floor as Dad was sleeping in my room with Drew. Guilmon was beside me, still deep asleep recovering from his injury during the fight.  
"Don't think that, Ross. It's not your fault, that vampire just pulled a low blow. You did say you guys had him." reminded Taichi. "Look, we all just need to get some shut-eye for tomorrow, okay?"  
"Okay…" Hikari conceded and crawled up the bunk bed ladder back to her bed.  
"Think you can sleep?"  
"I'll try."  
"We'll get her back, Hikari." I promised.  
"Just leave everything to us." Taichi assured her.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The Yagami/McGlathery family wasn't the only ones going to sleep. At Mimi's house, she was all ready for bed as well.  
"Well, good night!" Mimi told her folks.  
"Good night!" They said. At Yamato's, he looked at a note that his Dad had left him about boiled mackerel in the fridge.  
"He's working overtime again." He informed Gabumon. He turned on the TV only to get static once again. "This is really weird.

A few hours later, out by the water edge near the Rainbow Bridge, Hiroaki and his crew were sitting in a van after exploring all across the entire district to find that fog bank had surrounded everything.  
"And so, this is what the fog encompasses." Hiroaki circled on a map they had.  
"It only covers Odaiba." Chioka observed.  
"It's almost as if someone is controlling this fog. Like a magician." Yuki mentioned.  
"Maybe we should get back to the station." suggested Seki. Suddenly the ground began to shake. Hiroaki quickly turned off the light in the car.  
"Quiet." He whispered. Right outside the car walked a giant black dinosaur Digimon.  
"M-M-Monst-…!" Seki had to be silenced by Chioka.  
"Keep quiet." He reminded.  
"You saw that too, right?" Yuki wanted to make sure she wasn't going crazy. Both men nodded. They all soon got out of the van when they thought the coast was clear.  
"Maybe this fog has something to do with these monsters." theorized Hiroaki. Yuki suddenly screamed when she saw a bunch of small monsters approaching them. They were yellow frog-like creatures with orange fur and black saw-like spikes on their backs. These Child-Level Digimon were called Gizamon. "Be careful, everyone!" Hiroaki shouted as they were swarmed by the creatures.

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 0555 Hours._

At the crack of dawn, news agencies and government officials were on the scene outside of the massive fog bank that had now surrounded the area of Odaiba.  
"It's fog! The fog has completely covered Odaiba!" A helicopter pilot flying a UH-60 belonging to the Air Self-Defense Force called in.  
"Affirmative, Rapier Three. We cannot receive any contact from the inside." The command center alerted him.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

"And as you can see, there are no signs of what is going on in the fog dome. The safety of Odaiba's residents is unknown." The reporter said on the TV as I dropped the spoon in my bowl of cereal before standing up.  
"I have to go." I said to Mom. This whole fog barrier was the responsibility of Vamdemon, I just know it. The others are going to need me.  
"Takeru!"  
"I have to go! Onii-chan and Papa are in there!" Mom just sat back down and stared at the TV for a moment. "Let me go!"  
"Okay. We'll go together."

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Yamato!" I heard a voice say. "Wake up!" I suddenly came back to the waking world and found that Dad was shoving me awake. I turned to see he looked worse for wear and was quickly downing a bowl of food.  
"Dad… What happened to you?"  
"I'll tell you later! Right now, hurry up and get dressed!"

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

I slept at Shimbashi Station through the night before I woke up about thirty minutes before six. I was currently chugging down a small bottle of an energy shot to fully wake me up. The trains were still closed, so I decided to move on.  
"Jou, where are we going?" Gomamon asked from the bag.  
"Hinode-sanbashi. Maybe the boats are still working."

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"I still can't believe you actually forgot your wallet before you set sail."  
"Well, that was actually kinda lucky. It's sitting in the house, rather than the bottom of the South China Sea." Phil and Susumu were joking with one another as they were at the station. Susumu was trying to get to work while Phil was trying to get back to the McGlathery apartment in Yokohama.  
"We apologize for the inconvenience. Due to an unknown incident, train service has been suspended." The station intercom broadcasted.  
"This isn't good…" Susumu sighed.  
"Guess I can wait until tomorrow to go south." muttered Phil.

Both men were interrupted when the heard the sounds of people screaming before they turned around to see people running from ghosts and one of them was cloaked in red and wielding a large scythe. This was Phantomon, a Perfect-Level Digimon that now served as Vamdemon's commander of all his forces after Tailmon went turncoat.  
"Wh-What are those things?!" stammered Susumu.  
"Soul Chopper!" Phantomon's was a bit higher pitched than he'd look but with the sadistic tone to it as well as the scythe, he was no laughing matter. He swung his blade and destroyed the clock and train time screens. "Vamdemon-sama's orders! All of you will be taken in!"

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

Piyomon pressed the snooze button on the rooster alarm clock I had right by my futon as I gather my stuff up for soccer.  
"Where are you going so early in the morning?" She asked.  
"The soccer club's morning practice. I'd like to talk with Taichi about what we should do, too. I'll be back by breakfast, so keep quiet, okay?" She nodded sadly and I walked out towards the door past Mom in the kitchen. "I'm going!" I told her.  
"Have fun." She said, not really sounding like she cared in terms of the tone of her voice. I still really haven't talked to her yet about everything, especially about my recent epiphany. I was just trying to think of the right thing to say to her, about being wrong about her feelings for me and that I did truly love her, even if we had differences of what I should be doing with my life. I just sighed and walked out the door.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I got up real early, just as Dad and Susumu were getting up as well. I let them hop in the shower first before I did and was already ready for what we were going to do today. We were going to deal with Vamdemon and get back Tailmon. Taichi and Hikari were up a few minutes later and it was five minutes after six when Taichi got on the phone to call the others.

"This is weird…" Apparently, he wasn't able to get anything on the phone.  
"Taichi, don't you have morning practice?" Yuuko reminded.  
"This isn't the time for that!" Taichi not wanting to do soccer? Things are serious.  
"Really?" Yuuko muttered as she started to clean the counter tops. I walked back into my room and got Drew to take him out for his business.  
"Come on, Drew-boy. Let's get you all taken… care… of…" I trailed off as my eyes widened in horror as I opened the patio door. "Taichi… Hikari…" I motioned the two of them to come over here and when they did, their eyes widened too. Outside was a sheer nightmare as thousands of people were being forced through the streets at the beck of an army of Bakemon. Vamdemon had invaded in full force.

We were speechless as we just heard the sounds of cries and screams from those that were being dragged away from their homes.  
"Good God…" Hikari whispered in sheer horror.  
"Hey, Ross? What was that Vamdemon said to you last night? 'Gather all of the children?'" Taichi reminded.  
"Yeah, he did… Anyone else got Glenn Frey's _'Flip City'_ from _**Ghostbusters II**_ playing in their head?" I asked. Both of them nodded. We heard the doorbell ring at the door and knew exactly what that meant.  
"I'll get it!" Yuuko said as she walked to the door.  
"DON'T OPEN IT!" The three of us screamed but it was too late. When she didn't answer the door, the door exploded and right there waiting was a whole squad's worth of Bakemon. Half of them headed right towards us before the door to the bedroom opened and Guilmon and Agumon ran out to defend us.  
"Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" All attackers were eliminated in a fiery manner.  
"Taichi! Hikari! Ross!" Yuuko shouted out as the four other Bakemon dragged her out the door.  
"MOM!" "MOM!" "YUUKO-SAN!" We all cried out as even more Bakemon showed up.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Talk about a rude awakening. Here I was sleeping peacefully in my bed one second, the next me and my family are running out of the house with a bunch of those Bakemon on our tail! Thank goodness I still was hiding Palmon under that yellow sheet, so at least, we weren't completely defenseless. We ran as fast as we could before we made it to the elevator.  
"It's all right now." Dad believed.  
"What were those things?!" Mom questioned.  
"Mama, let me explain…" I didn't get a chance as the elevator came to a stop and revealed a whole bunch of Bakemon that were waiting for us.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The last thing the Bakemon that were clearing out the Takenouchi apartment was any sort of resistance. Unfortunately for them, it was a fatal error.  
"Magical Fire!" Piyomon had killed all of the Bakemon that tried to break into apartment. For Toshiko, she was completely wracked with fear. She was calmly making food in the kitchen when the door was knocked open revealing a bunch of ghosts. Then a small pink bird that Sora had told her was a stuffed animal had flew out of her room and fired a green projectile at the attacking ghosts.  
"You're… You're not a stuffed toy?!" She tried to stammer out. Piyomon turned to look at her.  
"Where does the soccer club have its morning practice?"  
"In the elementary school's… schoolyard…"  
"I have to hurry. Sora's in danger!" The fear suddenly vanished from Toshiko after those words… this bird… was a friend of Sora's?

"Separate the adults and the children, and have all of the children meet Tailmon." Vamdemon ordered PicoDevimon as the two of them flew over to the Big Sight convention center where all the prisoners would be interned. "We'll be checking each of their identities." For PicoDevimon, things couldn't have been going better for him. His greatest rival to being his master's right hand was nothing more than a traitor and the ninth Digimon to boot.  
"Sir, why not kill them all instead of doing something so complicated? It'll be much faster." He asked the obvious question.  
"That won't suit my aesthetics. But… You understand, don't you?" Vamdemon said to Tailmon who was hanging off a harness behind him in the center. "If you feign ignorance, I won't hesitate to slaughter every last one of them." He laughed.

"Tell me what happened!" Yamato demanded his father. They along with Gabumon had managed to sneak all the way over to a warehouse right by the Fuji TV building.  
"I don't know either." Hiroaki admitted. "But in the meantime, both of you keep safe here."  
"What about you, Dad?"  
"I'm going to the station… I want to do everything I can to contact the outside and let them know what's happening here. Gabumon-kun, was it? Take care of Yamato for me."  
"I understand." He said.  
"Be careful, okay?" Yamato warned.  
"Yeah." Hiroaki nodded as he walked back down the stairs.  
"Are you okay with this, Yamato?" asked Gabumon.  
"We'll have to trust my dad."

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" Our two Digimon busted through the walls of the apartment building right onto the streets to the panic of many of the people the Bakemon were dragging away.  
"I-It's a dinosaur!" We were just able to catch Mom's voice from out in the crowd.  
"No! This isn't what it looks like, Mom!" I shouted from Greymon's shoulder with Hikari hanging on to me.  
"Yeah, believe it or not, they're friendlies!" Ross called out from Growmon's shoulder.  
"Greymon, Growmon, save my mom!" I ordered as the two marched ahead swiping and clawing to death any Bakemon that got in our way.  
"N-No! My children!" I heard Mom cry out; still not understanding what was going on.

Our attacks were suddenly stopped when Greymon cried in pain as he was struck in the arm, just centimeters from where we were sitting, by a red ghoul with a scythe. The reaper then turned his attention and struck Growmon in the chest.  
"Gah! Damn it! Again!" He roared.  
"There's no point in resisting." The ghoul taunted. "Now! Take them all to Vamdemon-sama!"  
"Taichi! Hikari! Ross!"  
"Mega Flame!" Greymon launched an attack but the phantom just vanished and he hit a building. "I'm sorry, Taichi… I promise to save your mother later. But for now, you have to run away with me!"  
"He's right. We've got to escape while we still can." Growmon agreed. It was a very hard decision and I looked at Ross and we both seemed to click on the same wavelength. Mom would have to wait, getting away with Hikari was more important as she was the one Vamdemon wanted. Both Digimon turned and started to run away from the crowds of people.  
"Mom! We'll come back for you!" "Mom!" "Just hang on a little while!" The three of us shouted as we escaped with heavy hearts.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Piyomon and Toshiko had disguised themselves as Bakemon to sneak past the patrols to get to the school yard. Along the way, Piyomon explained to her what was going on, though she didn't have time to say too much as they quickly arrived to the schoolyard only to find it empty.. All they found was a bunch of soccer balls and Sora's beanie on the ground.  
"We're too late." Piyomon said with guilt.  
"Sora… Where could Sora be?"  
"Maybe we should follow some of the Bakemon, they might lead us to Sora."  
"Okay… Um, Piyo-san, this might sound like an odd question, but did Sora ever say that she hated me?"  
"Not at all!" Piyomon was quick to dismiss that thought from the woman's head. "In fact, she said this!"  
" _I was acting just like my mom."  
" _Sora…"  
" _That's when I understood… My mom loved me all along."  
" _I felt it too! I felt your love!"  
" _I'm sorry about before."  
_____ "That girl…" Toshiko almost felt like tearing up upon hearing those words.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

After those Bakemon got the drop on me, they took me and the other kids over to Big Sight where I was now sitting confined to my fate.  
"Sora-san!" I heard a familiar voice put her hands on my shoulders. I turned to see Mimi in her pajamas smiling at me.  
"They've caught you too, Mimi-chan?" Suddenly, the yellow blanket she carried with her moved and it turned out that Palmon was hiding underneath it.  
"Should I evolve?" She asked. I looked around… no, there's no good opportunity at the moment.  
"The enemy is all around us, so let's lay low for now."  
"Okay." _  
_

"I swear, Susumu, I'm somehow cursed." I heard a nearby male voice say.  
"Don't say that." Another male said.  
"I'm serious. This is a sign that I should've died in that camp." 'Died in that camp'? That must be Ross and Taichi's dads.  
"Come on, don't be ridiculous, this is just a horrible coincidence."  
"This wouldn't have been as much of problem if we were on the base. You saw that tall guy, that one that's giving out the orders and who thinks he's a vampire, right? He'd have nine-mil right between the eyes if I was just allowed to have my Beretta."  
"Could you hit him from here?"  
"I didn't get those Expert Marksmanship medals for nothing…"  
"Susumu!" Taichi's mom cried out and ran up to the two men, hugging the one that was obviously her husband.  
"Yuuko!"  
"What happened?" The captain asked as they all sat down on a bench.

"Our children… Our children…!" Yuuko cried.  
"Calm down." Susumu tried to talk to her.  
"I can't! I last saw them when we were being attacked by these monsters. Those orange and red dinosaurs must have eaten them by now…" Orange and red dinosaurs? Must be Greymon and Growmon she's referring to. I walked up to the group to assure them of the other's safety.  
"Please don't worry."  
"Sora-chan."  
"Those dinosaurs are on our side. I'm sure they will come here with other good Digimon and save us."

The next few minutes were anything but quiet as Captain McGlathery was not one for staying a prisoner again. We gathered with a few other people: Mimi's parents, some folks that worked at the Fuji TV building that said they worked with Yamato's father and we all began to come up with a plan for escape.  
"Okay. Here's the plan. The men will take down the guards, so while we keep those freaks busy, you will lead the women and children out of here." Ross's dad pointed to the female TV worker.  
"Understood." She was quickly tapped on the shoulder by three people dressed as characters Gachapin, Mukku and P-chan from the shows _Hirake! Ponkikki_ and _Ponkickies_. "Do you want to help, too?" All three mascots nodded.

"Excuse me…" Mimi's mom stood up.  
"What is it?" Ross's asked.  
"Please don't make my husband participate in such a dangerous plan!"  
"Huh?"  
"Hey now…" Mimi's dad tried to speak but his wife was letting loose.  
"You be quiet, sweetie! There are plenty of other men here, so my husband doesn't have to join you, right?"  
"Um, ma'am, that's not…" Now Ross's dad was the one who was taking the blunt of her tantrum.  
"He'll die! If my husband dies, I'll follow after him and die too!" She cried.  
"Okay, okay! I understand!"  
"Well then, Tachikawa-san, you'll escort the women outside." Taichi's dad informed. As soon as he said that, Mimi's mom suddenly stopped crying.  
"Isn't that great, honeybuns?" Okay, well, I now know where Mimi's tendencies come from. Like mother, like daughter.

"What is he listening to?" I asked the female worker about her male coworker listening to the boom box.  
"Sakurada-kun? When he gets stressed, he listens to sutras."  
"Sutras?" I suddenly remembered Jou's words back with our fight with Bakemon-sama.  
" _To fight against ghosts, you need to chant a sutra praying for God's good grace!"  
"Chant a what?"  
" _By chanting the sutra, Bakemon-sama's power will weaken!"_ _That's right! We used a sutra to defeat Bakemon-sama back on File Island. Surely the same could be now.  
"Dear…" I heard Taichi's mom mutter to his dad.  
"It'll be okay."  
"Good. Let's go, everyone!" The captain gave out the order and the breakout began.

"CHARGE!" Ross's dad yelled as the men grabbed whatever they could and started using them as weapons and whacking and striking the Bakemon that was trying to put down the uprising. "Hurry! Led them out! Susumu, behind you!" He swung a pipe and smacked the Bakemon that nearly got the drop on his friend.  
"Everyone, stay close to me!" The woman leading us said as we started running out towards the exits. Multiple Bakemon flew at us but I was prepared.  
"Listen to this!" I held up the boom box and suddenly the Bakemon started to fall to the ground in agony. "Now! Hurry! Hurry!"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

We managed to get out of the building and onto the road underneath one of the bridges, right by the giant red saw art sculpture.  
"All right!" My mother cheered. "We've made it outside!" Our victory was short lived as a giant black dinosaur stomped right nearby us. "There's another one!"  
"That's DarkTyranomon, an Adult-Level Digimon." I heard Palmon explain from under the sheet. "His heart and body were infected by a computer virus."  
"Where are you going?" My mom asked as my dad had a determined look on his face before running back into the crowd. He grabbed a small buggy and drove straight ahead at DarkTyranomon.  
"A man must do… What a man must do!" The dinosaur merely swatted the car away and sent Dad flying.  
"Papa!" I shouted.  
"Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" Togemon gave a swift uppercut to DarkTyranomon while Mom and I ran over to where Dad had crashed.

"Honey!" "Papa!"  
"Are you all right, dearest?"  
"I am, but… I made a fool of myself."  
"No, that's not true! You were very cool!"  
"Really?"  
"Really!"  
"Really?"  
"Really!"  
"Hey…" I interrupted their moment. "This isn't the time for that!"  
"Once in a while doesn't hurt." Dad claimed.  
"Yeah." Mom agreed.  
"But you always do this!" I reminded them.

My attention was quickly drawn back to the fight when DarkTyranomon slammed Togemon to the ground and then he started to use his fire breath on her.  
"Togemon!" I shouted as I ran closer to her. "You can do it, Togemon!"  
"I'm trying…" She said as she slowly got back up. I looked around and saw everything was now going wrong. More Bakemon had arrived and were now rounding up everyone who escaped and were herding them back to Big Sight.  
"Why?" I muttered to myself, tears flowing in my eyes. "Why? Why are they doing this to us?" They're terrible! I can't forgive them! I'll never forgive those Digimon! Vamdemon must be stopped!

For the fate of all of humanity!

My Crest suddenly glowed and my Digivice shot a light that reflected off of my Crest and shot towards Togemon.  
"Togemon, super-evolve! LILIMON!" Lilimon could be described in a few words; a beautiful flower pixie that was almost the size of an average woman. DarkTyranomon backed up at the sight of her.  
"Togemon evolved?" I said, mostly to myself.  
"Flower Cannon!" She produced a large flower in her hands that revealed cannon and fired a bolt of energy that crashed into DarkTyranomon's chest.  
"Lilimon?"  
"Hi, Mimi! Do you think I'm horrible taste?" I had to smile at those words.  
"Not at all! You're very pretty! And cute!" She gave me a wink.  
"Thank you!" She quickly used her four rapidly flapping wings to quickly dodge the large dinosaur that was attacking. "Try to catch me if you can!"  
"Get him!" I shouted.  
"Hey, Mimi. It was your tears of purity that helped me to evolve. I want to cherish that heart of yours. That's why…"  
"What are you going to do?"

"Just watch! Hana no Kubikazari!" She shouted Flower Necklace and became a blur as she flew around and around DarkTyranomon's neck. A moment later, a necklace of pink flowers was around the beast's neck. "I've removed the evil virus from him using my flower power. He's not our enemy anymore." Lilimon explained. "Good boy." She petted the dinosaur that looked friendlier now.  
"Wow!" I said.  
"A cleaver trick." A sinister voice rang out. We turned to see Vamdemon was floating nearby. "Bloody Stream!" He fatally struck DarkTyranomon and the dinosaur exploded into data before vanishing.  
"How could you do that?!" Lilimon questioned.  
"All I've done is rid myself of some unnecessary rubbish. You're next." informed the vampire. "Bloody Stream!" He sent a whip out that Lilimon quickly avoided before she counterattacked.  
"Flower Cannon!"

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

As I got to the waterfront, my fears were confirmed about traveling.  
"The boats don't work either." I moaned. "How do I get through that fog?"  
"Jou, don't they teach you that in school?" Gomamon asked.  
"Of course not! Stuff like how to make a fire or how to wash dishes… You never learn about that in a classroom!"  
"Then what do they teach you?"  
"Who cares right now! What's more important is that fog!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Everything was moving at such a fast past. Takeru and his mother were on the fastest rail line to the edge of Odaiba. Hiroaki was sneaking past multiple Bakemon in the TV building, in an attempt to reach the satellite. Ross, Taichi, their Digimon and Hikari were running in the streets just past the warehouse where Yamato spotted them.  
"Are you okay?" Taichi asked Agumon.  
"Yeah, somewhat…"  
"How about you, Guilmon?" Ross questioned his partner.  
"I'll live."  
"Taichi! Ross!" Yamato called out. "Over here!"  
"Yamato!" The two boys said in surprise.

"Does it still hurt?" Hikari asked the two Digimon as she was checking their wounds.  
"It's gotten much better." Agumon admitted.  
"Give me a few minutes; I'll be back on my feet." Guilmon informed.  
"What?!" Yamato shouted at what he just been told from the two boys.  
"It's the truth." Ross said.  
"Hikari is the ninth child!" Taichi explained to him.

Back at Big Sight, Phantomon knocked away the boom box Sora was holding and now she was cornered on the bridge by him and multiple Bakemon.  
"Try chanting Buddha's name this time so you can die a peaceful death!" The reaper taunted. "Your life is mine!" Two Bakemon walked up to her before turning around.  
"Not a chance!" They yelled before they revealed themselves to be Toshiko and Piyomon.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" The large phoenix quickly forced the ghosts to panic and pull away from Sora and her mother, who quickly shared an embrace.  
"Sora…" Toshiko said as she held her child.  
"Mom…"  
"Run from here, Sora."  
"You should, too!" The red-head insisted as the Bakemon regrouped and approached them.  
"Hurry up and go!" insisted Toshiko as she planned to sacrifice herself to allow Sora a chance to escape.  
"Mom!"

Things were already going horribly wrong and the day had still only just begun…

* * *

Boy, it has really hit the fan, hasn't it?

Anyways, I've really got nothing more to add for this one so I'll see you all next time.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	38. Zudomon Spark!

Chapter 37!

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for the review. Really, Mewtwo? I always felt that Pokémon while cool, was always overrated. My Typhlosion could still kick his butt any day of the week. But you are right, the battle has truly begun now.

By the way, there are four characters that make a cameo appearance. Think you can find them? I tried to be less vague this time.

Shall we see?

* * *

 **Chapter 37: Break Through the Barrier! Zudomon Spark!**

 _Big Sight, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 0732 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

Mom and I were completely surrounded by Bakemon, all the while Lilimon and Vamdemon were clashing above the buildings of Big Sight.  
"Flower Cannon!" Lilimon launched another strike at the vampire, but he just took the hit head on and simply shrugged it away.  
"You would've stayed cute if you'd kept quiet." He mysteriously said. He then proceeded to open up his cape. "Dead Scream!" Suddenly, some sort of dark attack shot out and made contact with Lilimon causing her to scream before she became all grey and faded.  
"Lilimon!" Mimi shouted from below us.  
"Run, Sora!" Mom ordered.  
"But! But Mom!" I tried to argue. I simply couldn't leave her behind.  
"Hurry!"

"Night Raid!" The bats Vamdemon launched crashed right into the petrified Lilimon and sent her straight to the ground.  
"Lilimon! Hang in there!" Mimi cried out as she ran near us.  
"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon threw out some fireballs to destroy several bats that were trying to swarm Lilimon before she flew by and picked up the flower pixie in her talons.  
"Sora-san! Take Lilimon and get out of here!" requested Mimi.  
"What are you waiting for? Hurry!" Both my mom and Mimi both wanted me to escape, even at the cost of their own freedom. This was a choice I didn't want to make. I could feel tears were beginning to build but I quickly sucked it up. I would have to leave them for now and save them later. I turned and got up on the railing of the bridge before jumping off and catching Birdramon's talon.  
"Mom! Mimi-chan! I'll make sure to save you!" I promised as we flew away with the sight of the Bakemon grabbing them both getting further and further away.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Hikari finished up tying up the bandages she had placed on Agumon's arm from the first aid kit we found in the warehouse we were hiding in. She had already patched up Guilmon on his chest beforehand as she thought he had the more severe injury.  
"Does it hurt, Agumon?" She asked.  
"No. Thank you Hikari." Agumon thanked.  
"You're one heck of medic." praised Guilmon.

At the same time, Yamato was filling us in on some details about what was going on through info he got from his dad who had tried to sneak into the Fuji building to try and send out a signal to the outside world.  
"What!?" Taichi questioned. "The entire area of Odaiba is isolated?"  
"Yeah. Vamdemon must be behind all of this." Yamato assumed.  
"It has to be. He's blocked out everything in Odaiba just so he can get the ninth child!"  
"Yeah, he doesn't want to risk Hikari or us to escape his clutches, and he doesn't want anyone from the outside to interfere with him… not yet anyways." I brought up.  
"He's even taken both adults and children hostage without discrimination." Yamato added.  
"We still have the advantage on him in a way. He's gathered all the kids in the area because he believes that Tailmon has already met the ninth child. He's probably going to have her point out the child to him or something." I theorized.  
"How exactly did he figure out Tailmon was the ninth Digimon?"  
"I don't know! He put two and two together!" I shouted.  
"Damn it all!" Taichi angrily kicked a can… that rolled its way to Hikari's feet.

"Is this my fault?" Hikari asked. Oh, no… "Did everyone get captured to protect me? Even Mom…?" Great, that's just like her, taking everyone's burdens and assuming it's because of her.  
"No, it's not, Hikari!" Taichi quickly got up to quell that thought. "It's not your fault. It's not yours either, Ross, before you say anything." He somehow knew I was about to blame myself again. "It's Vamdemon's! Listen, Hikari. Just leave everything to me and Ross. Yamato! Is there any way to get out of the fog barrier?"  
"Dad said all the ways were blocked, at least in terms of the bridges, and by water… well, he said that he and his coworkers were attacked by some yellow frog-like Digimon by the bay waters."  
"Those sound like Gizamon they encountered." Gabumon quickly spoke up.  
"Anyways, even if we got past that, who knows what's waiting in that fog for us."  
"So getting Hikari out to complete safety and coming back in to deal with Vamdemon is off the table." I rubbed my forehead.

"Then there's only one thing to do." Taichi said. "Hikari, all you have to do is stay here. Yamato. Can you take care of Hikari for a while?"  
"Yeah, okay…"  
"Hikari. We'll save Mom and everyone else, okay?"  
"'We'll?'" I questioned.  
"Well, I expected you to not let me do this on my own."  
"You got that right."  
"Onii-chan… Ross-chan… Save Tailmon, too!" Hikari begged.  
"Yeah, we'll take care of everything!" Taichi gave a thumb up. He quickly looked at his Digivice that was showing the time. We somehow found out a clock setting on these things. "Seven-thirty A.M. If we don't come back in two hours, take Hikari and get out of here." He told Yamato.  
"Let's go, Agumon!" "Come on, Guilmon!" The two of us and our Digimon began to run.  
"Taichi! Ross!" Yamato tried to talk to us.  
"Take good care of Hikari!" "Keep her safe at all costs!" The two of us shouted as we ran outside.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

Things were turning out to be very bad for us, if I could put it mildly. When I woke up, I could see it was very foggy outside and the district was succumbing to complete chaos. Simply looking outside right now, Tentomon and I could see multiple Bakemon clearing out the nearby apartment blocks. Looks like Vamdemon had made his big push to find the ninth child. I opened up my laptop to see if there was there was anything I could do about the situation.

"I have e-mail from Gennai-san." I told Tentomon. The little Chibi-Gennai walked across the screen holding letter.  
"Um…" It said in its high pitched voice. "Etcetera, etcetera. There's no time for small talk."  
"You've got that right!" Tentomon worried.  
"Since it's an emergency situation, I'll start with the important news first. First, put up a digital barrier at once."  
"A digital barrier?" I questioned.  
"Download the program I sent you into another computer." I quickly slid my chair and my laptop over to the PC in the corner and got to work. "As long as the digital barrier is set up, you'll be safe for the time being." Tentomon quickly looked out the window again to see what the status was on the Bakemon.  
"Koushiro-han! You must hurry! They're almost here!"  
"I know that!" I typed as fast as I could on the computer before a progress bar popped up. Looks like I did it, now I just have to wait for the barrier to fully materialize, which I hope will be fast as I was running out of time.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

The crowd at the Hinode Passenger Terminal for the water busses was getting quite unruly. It was worrisome to think that emotions could explode and the crowds turn completely chaotic.  
"While the cause of the problem is unknown to us, none of the water busses are able to make departure at this time." A station official said over a megaphone, trying to calm the crowd.  
"When are they going to work again?!" A man in the crowd yelled.  
"We are sorry for the trouble!"  
"This isn't good… What should we do?" Mom worried. "Not even the ships are working."  
"I have to get to Odaiba by the afternoon!" Another man shouted.  
"Yurikamome Station and the Rainbow Bridge are closed, too!"  
"Do something"  
"Calm down, everyone! Please don't push!" At this point, the dam had burst and now people were swarming. It caused me and Mom to get separated in the crowd.  
"Mama?" I called out.  
"Takeru!" I heard her voice but the crowd got up and started pushing and shoving once more.  
"Mama!"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

The clock was ticking. I could now hear the Bakemon starting to capture the neighbors throughout the apartment, and the barrier still wasn't ready yet.  
"Hurry… hurry…" I muttered before I heard the door to my room open.  
"There's trouble out there, Koushiro!" Mom alerted while holding a frying pan.  
"We have to leave!" Dad said while carrying a golf club.  
"No, it'll be safer if we stay in here!" I told them.  
"What are you talking about? The monsters are almost here!" Mom claimed.  
"Just wait a little longer! Please wait just a few more seconds!" I suddenly felt Mom grab me from behind.  
"Koushiro! Come on!"  
"Mom!" I tried to keep her from pulling me away from the computer. "Wait, Mom!"

"Just leave your computer behind! We have to get out of here! Hurry, Koushiro…!" Dad then put his hand on Mom's shoulder.  
"Let's have faith in Koushiro. In our son. That's what we've always done."  
"Dear…" She stepped back giving me a sign that they would allow me to do what I'm trying to do. And good timing too as the barrier was finally ready.  
"All right!" A few more keystrokes… and… "Digital Barrier… On!" There was a bright light on the screen while the sound of the door being smashed in filled the house. We turned to see the Bakemon looking around and one was staring right at us. He suddenly looked confused as Mom and Dad were shaking with fear. A red caped ghost appeared behind that one.  
"Huh, they're not home." All three ghosts that came in turned around and left. It worked! Mom and Dad sighed as they fell to the floor.  
"Koushiro-han, it worked big time!" Mom and Dad went back to an alert state when they heard Tentomon speak. I just face palmed. "I-I'm called Tentomon! P-Pleased to meet you…" He quickly tried explaining himself. It didn't really work as Mom just fainted in Dad's arms.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back at Big Sight, the children had now been separated from their parents who were now under even closer observation as to prevent another breakout attempt. As if it would really help them.  
"What are you going to do to us?!" Susumu demanded.  
"Give us back our children!" A woman shouted. PicoDevimon could only laugh at their demands.  
"All of you are going to be Vamdemon-sama's precious meal. Go to sleep until then." Red rings began to shoot out of the bat's eyes and soon all the adults in the convention center were now deep asleep.

Meanwhile with the children, they had all been lined up and force to walk up to Tailmon who had to say whether or not they were the ninth child. For the children, many of them were crying or on the verge as they were all terrified about what was happening as well as their worries about a bleak future.  
"No." Tailmon said yet again.  
"All right, next." A Bakemon shooed away the girl that stood before Tailmon. The next boy to walk up was Takeo who kept a serious if not tired face. Tailmon shook her head and Takeo was escorted away. Next child was a boy with brown spikey hair that eerily looked like Taichi when he was around seven or eight years old which the boy was of that age. He was keeping a brave face, but it was clear he was also secretly scared. Behind him was a red headed girl with spiky hair as well and she looked to be a few years older than the boy in front of her. She was barely keeping it together.  
"No." Tailmon shook her head. The girl quickly ran over to the younger boy and embraced him as she suddenly began to cry. It was now clear these two kids were siblings.  
"You understand, don't you?" Vamdemon's voice rang through the hall. The kids all began to be filled with pure terror as the vampire walked forward from a dark portal. "If you lie to me, I will kill all of these children!" Tailmon was about to break but knew that if she said now, these kids would be killed anyways. She just hoped that Hikari may have escaped, in order to delay the horror that the vampire wanted to unleash.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

The crowd at the station is trying to kill me! I'm getting pushed side to side as people are just storming the front of the station building. I quickly managed to find my way out of that mess and took a deep breath.  
"I thought I was gonna die in there!" I said to Gomamon in the bag.  
"Jou-san!" I turned to see Takeru and Patamon standing right next to me.  
"Takeru-kun!"  
"Jou-san, why aren't you in Odaiba?"  
"This confusion happened while I was in summer school." We both turned to look at the fog.  
"Hey, that fog must be…"  
"Yeah. It's most likely Vamdemon who did it. Odaiba must be in big trouble right now."  
"Onii-chan…" Takeru muttered.

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to get to Odaiba."  
"I'll come with you! But how?" I smiled and gave a wink.  
"With this!" I held up my bag before Gomamon popped out.  
"Gomamon!"  
"I almost suffocated." The seal said. Sorry, buddy.  
"All right!" cheered Patamon.  
"I'm counting on you, Gomamon." I told him.  
"Okay! Leave it to me!"

The two of us walked over to the docks where people would load up on the water busses. As we walked by, we noticed a few people were looking out towards the fog back including two raven-haired boys. The older one with glasses was looking through binoculars while the younger one kept tugging on his shirt, saying something about wanting to see. We walked down the dock and Gomamon hopped into the water.  
"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON! Now, climb on!" We did as we were told. First, I helped Takeru get on, then I did the same.  
"What is that!?" "Look at that thing!" "Onii-chan! It's that monster again!" "I see it, Ken!" "What are those kids doing!?" Looks like we drew a crowd as we began to sail away towards the fog.

"Takeru! Takeru!" A female voice yelled.  
"Mama!" He said. I turned to see a blonde haired female running down the docks towards us.  
"It's dangerous! Get off that thing!"  
"It's okay, Mama! This is Ikkakumon! He's a friend!"  
"Um, pleased to meet you!" I stuttered. Wow, this was really awkward. I quickly regained form to properly introduce myself. "I'm Kido Jou from sixth grade! I'll take good care of Takeru-kun, so please don't worry!"  
"T-Takeru!" Takeru's mother was running out of dock to chase us.  
"Mama, don't worry! I'll be fine!"  
"Takeru!"  
"I'll tell Onii-chan and Papa you said hi!" He waved as we started to enter the fog.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I kept typing away on my computer while Dad had moved Mom onto my bed before she looked like she was starting to come to.  
"It looks like the digital barrier is safely in place." Chibi-Gennai informed.  
"Yes." I nodded.  
"Then listen. The mysterious fog that you see surrounding Odaiba is really a magical barrier created by Vamdemon."  
"I knew it."  
"Does this mean we're like flies in a fly trap?" The bug Digimon gave a fitting analogy.  
"The source of the barrier is located here." Chibi-Gennai then pulled up a picture that showed the Fuji TV building. "If you destroy the source, you will destroy the barrier."  
"It's the Fuji TV station." I told Tentomon. "Let's hurry!"  
"All right!" I quickly packed up and turned to my parents.  
"Mom, Dad… I'm not sure when they will come again… So please stay inside the house for now. You'll be safe as long as you stay in here." I explained. I then hurried for the door.  
"Koushiro." Mom said, stopping me in my tracks. "Be careful. Come back safely, okay? To us." I almost felt like crying at those words. I pulled myself together.  
"Okay. I'll be back!" I headed out again.  
"Wait for me!" Tentomon trailed.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Man, if you think human slaves had it bad, the Bakemon are pushed around even worse." A lone Bakemon was sitting on a bench as the four of us quietly snuck up on him. Guilmon quickly dragged him backwards and covered his mouth.  
"Make a sound and you're dead." Ross threatened the ghost as he practically channeled Timothy Dalton.  
"Where is everyone being kept?" I demanded. Guilmon slowly moved his claws to allow the Bakemon to speak.  
"I don't know! I was just ordered to patrol this area!" He answered.  
"Taichi! Ross!" A female voice called out. We looked up to see Birdramon in the air coming towards us.  
"Sora! You're okay!" I called out. The Bakemon we capture ran away from us, scared out of his wits.

"The Big Sight center!" Sora yelled out. "That's where Vamdemon is holding everyone!"  
"Big Sight?" I questioned.  
"Makes sense. Big enough to hold everyone in the district." Ross guessed. Sora landed right in front of us.  
"Yeah…" She answered. "Mimi-chan is there… And your parents too… Your dads tried to lead a breakout but were recapture along with everyone else." Our eyes widened on that information.  
"Damn that Vamdemon…" I muttered. "Sora, I want you to bring Yamato! He's with Hikari in Aqua City."  
"We'll all meet up and take back the convention center full force!" Ross explained.  
"I got it!" She nodded.  
"Let's go!" I told the others as we ran straight for the center.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Hiroaki was typing away on one of the computers in the television building, hoping to get a signal to the outside world but was having no luck whatsoever.  
"The satellites don't work either… Damn it! There's gotta be a way! Some way to connect to the outside!" Outside the building, Koushiro and Tentomon were running through the empty streets before they were outside the building. Tentomon looked up to see the large structure and realized how much of a challenge was set before him.  
"I'm not enough to destroy this thing myself!" Tentomon informed. "Should I evolve?"  
"Wait! Some people might still be in there! Let's go take a look for ourselves."

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Wizarmon? I thought Tailmon was your Digimon partner, Hikari-chan?" I asked Hikari as she was explaining more about what had happened with her and about her being the ninth child. Funny how that meeting in the park, we actually were all together, we just didn't know it.  
"No, it is Tailmon. Wizarmon is Tailmon's friend… But he was killed by Vamdemon… At least, that's what Ross-chan thinks…" She explained with a sad tone. "And then Mom was taken away…" She suddenly gasped. "What about Dad? Do you think they got my dad, too? He's okay, right? Onii-chan and Ross-chan will save everyone, right?"  
"Well… I don't know…" It's the two of them against a whole army. The odds aren't exactly in our favor right now. "Those two are tough… but still…" Hikari really didn't like that answer and began to cry.  
"Tell me it'll be okay!" She cried through the tears.  
"Yamato, don't make her cry!" Gabumon told me. Ugh, he's right… I should treat her more like I would if she was Takeru… Speaking of which, where is he? Is he okay?

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"Once we reach Rainbow Bridge, we'll be in the thick of the fog!" I explained to Takeru. The boy was keeping quite the game face, one of bravery and determination… Man, that kid has grown up right before our eyes.  
"Yeah." We finally sailed fully into the fog and it was quiet. Way too quiet. Something was greatly wrong. I then caught a glimpse of something near the outline of the bridge.  
"Huh? Did you see something moving?"  
"Where?"  
"Look, from around there…" I pointed out. My concerns proved to be right as something moved and roared. We could now tell there was a large red serpent Digimon with a metal head resting around the bridge.  
"It's MegaSeadramon!" Patamon yelled. I knew he reminded me of that sea serpent. "He's the Perfect-Level of Seadramon! His special attack, Thunder Javelin, is shot from his lightning-shaped blade." The serpent tightened his body around the bridge and begun to bring part of it down around our heads!  
"The Rainbow Bridge!" I shouted as I saw it was now missing over twelve meters of it in the middle and the suspension around it was barely hanging together.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" Ikkakumon fired and hit the wide open monster.  
"All right! Direct hit!" I cheered.

Turns out that was premature as the smoke cleared to reveal we didn't even scratch him as he just responded by using his javelin and blasting Ikkakumon that blew us into the waters of the bay.  
"Help me! I can't swim…!" Takeru shouted as he tried to keep his head above the water. Patamon tried to help him but Takeru just fell beneath the waves.  
"Takeru!" Patamon cried. I quickly swam down and grabbed him and pulled him back up. "Takeru!" I then grabbed a wooden board from the bridge and handed it to him. Of course, now I didn't have anything to keep myself above water.  
"Grab onto that…" I told him.  
"Jou-san!"  
"I promised your mother… That I'll protect you… I have to… keep my promi-" I couldn't finish as I sank beneath the waves. Things began to grow dim… I didn't really expect this to be the way how I died.

But at least I was sincere in promise to Takeru and his mother.

Suddenly, my Crest began to glow and my Digivice turned dark grey while the buttons became indigo colored. A bright light shined and I could see the silhouette of Ikkakumon changing.  
"Ikkakumon, super-evolve! ZUDOMON!" I suddenly felt myself being dragged out of the sea and when I could finally breath again I looked up to see my savior. In the face, Zudomon looked like Ikkakumon, a walrus unicorn with orange hair now. That ended the similarities as most of the rest of the fur was gone and he had a gray, hardened body, a massive shell on his back, and a large hammer in one of his hands.  
"Jou-san!" I felt Takeru trying to shake me awake. "Look!" I looked over and saw the light from my Crest was shining a bright beam through the fog.  
"The fog…" I coughed up some seawater. "It's clearing up!" We quickly had to turn our attention back to MegaSeadramon who fired another Lighting Javelin. "Here he comes!" Zudomon didn't even blink as he just used his horn as a lightning rod.  
"Wow!" Takeru exclaimed.  
"Go, Zudomon!" I cheered.  
"Hammer Spark!" It was probably the easiest fight we ever fought. Zudomon merely swung his hammer and struck MegaSeadramon in the head and caved in the serpents head, killing him instantly.  
"All right!" Takeru and I said, just thankful to be alive.  
"We should go before the fog comes back to close up the hole!" insisted Takeru.  
"All right, let's go!" Zudomon sailed through the opening before it closed behind us. No turning back now.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I really didn't feel too comfortable destroying a large building that cost who knows what just to build along with everything inside. I felt even more uncomfortable just in case someone was hiding in there so that's why Tentomon and I were exploring, just to make sure. And who knows, maybe the source was small enough that we didn't actually need to destroy the entire building.  
"The main source of the barrier should be around here somewhere..." I theorized. "If we strike that…" I turned to see a Bakemon coming around the corner and quickly doubled back to avoid being spotted. "Not good. Let's go back." Another Bakemon was in the hall behind us. We were trapped. "Oh no! They've got us cornered!" I suddenly felt hands grab me and cover my mouth before I was dragged into a room with Tentomon.  
"Keep quiet." I looked up to see that it was a man that saved me.  
"Who are you?" I asked.  
"Ishida Hiroaki, and you're very lucky you were right there, kid." Ishida? Was this Yamato's father?

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

The fog is so thick in here; I can barely see my hand in front of my face.  
"It's white everywhere." I told Jou.  
"We can't even tell where we're going." worried Jou.  
"Take me to Tailmon!" A voice called out.  
"Wh-Who's that?" Patamon questioned. Our answer came in the form of someone holding dearly onto a log.  
"I am… Wizarmon…" The mariner coughed out. "Take me to Tailmon…"  
"Aren't you one of Vamdemon's minions?" Jou accused.  
"He looks hurt." I pointed out.  
"P-Please… Give this to Tailmon…" He opened up his palm to show that he was clutching onto a Crest!  
"Look! It's a Crest and Tag!" Patamon shouted.  
"This is the ninth child's… Original." He passed out onto the log.  
"Say what!?" Jou and I shouted. Zudomon quickly picked up the unconscious Digimon and we continued to roam through the fog, hopeful to reach the shores of Odaiba.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

"Two hours are almost up." Yamato said as he looked at his Digivice. "Where are they?" Oh, I hope their okay.  
"Yamato! Hikari-chan!" A voice from outside yelled, it sounded like Sora. Both Yamato and Gabumon ran out to meet her while I stayed back for a moment. Sora had been riding on a large bird that I guessed was Piyomon's Adult form, Birdramon.  
"Sora!"  
"Yamato! Taichi and Ross told me you'd be here! Everyone is held captive at Big Sight!"  
"Big Sight?" He questioned as I walked up to the two of them. On the ground was this flower looking woman who was completely gray. Must be another Digimon but she didn't resemble any Digimon that Taichi and Ross told me. Our conversation was interrupted when we heard a sinister laugh fill the air. Standing on the bridge above us was that scythe wielding Digimon that hurt Greymon and Growmon earlier!  
"Even if I don't fine the ninth child, I'll still be rewarded for killing you guys! Your lives will end here! Come on out!"

The ground began to shake and bursting from the ground came a large bipedal green dinosaur with multiple horns.  
"That's Tuskmon!" Gabumon shouted. "A powerful Adult Digimon who knocks away anything in his path! His special attack is Panzer Knuckle!" Panzer? Isn't that German for tank? So, Tank Knuckle? From above a large green insect resembling a praying mantis came flying in with two giant sickles for hands.  
"Snimon!" Birdramon informed. "He's an Adult-Level Digimon that is cruel and villainous. His special attack is Shadow Sickle!" The two Digimon approached causing Sora to shriek out.  
"Gabumon!" Yamato called up his partner.  
"Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" The large wolf ran straight ahead and got tangled up with the horn Digimon while Birdramon went up to clash with the bug. I could only watch in fear as both Digimon were soon starting to get pushed back. Tuskmon punched Garurumon and sent him flying over the roof of the warehouse.

"Garurumon!" Yamato cried out before the ball and chain that the ghost had attached to his scythe swung around his neck and begun strangling him! The ghost then tried to cut him down but he managed to dodge it.  
"Yamato!" Sora shouted as she grabbed a wooden pole and tried to hit the ghoul but he cut it in half and sent her flying to the ground. Now, I could only watch in horror.  
"Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!" Snimon made quick swipes and caused her to crash into the building. This not good. Yamato is being strangled with Tuskmon looking on. Garudamon is getting beaten, Garurumon has been knocked away… things were going to end in tragically if something isn't done. There was only one thing that could be done.  
"Please… STOP!" I shouted. I drew the attention of all the Digimon to me. I know what awaits me but I just have to save Yamato and Sora. I have to be like Taichi and Ross. Have to be brave.

"I'm the ninth child." I came forward, trying to keep a brave face like my brothers would. "I'll follow you quietly. So please, stop hurting everyone."  
"I praise you for your good intentions." The phantom said. "Very well." He called off both Digimon and let Yamato go.  
"Thank you." I said quietly. I suddenly found myself enclosed in a purple bubble.  
"Don't, Hikari-chan!" Sora called out.  
"You can't go!" Yamato yelled.  
"Hikari-chan!" I surrender myself to my fate as I was lifted towards the top of the TV building. I just couldn't stand to watch everyone getting hurt for my sake. All I could do now was try to be brave and pray that the others could use the time I've given them to try and rescue me.

Ross-chan… Onii-chan… Please hurry…

* * *

And that was Chapter 37. Things are really not looking good now, eh?

Anyways, nothing more to say so take care.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	39. Sparkling Angewomon!

Chapter 38! The fight continues!

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his continual reviews. Calling Zudomon 'Thor the Turtle'... how is I don't come up with this stuff, I watch MST3K and RiffTrax! I should be quick on the jokes! Speaking of which, just saw the RiffTrax Live! of Krull (Featuring early roles of Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane) from the other day.  
'This movie spends more time in caves than a Thai Boys Soccer Team! *Audience boos* Oh, come on, they're all okay! It's fine!'  
Or another funny line when *Spoiler* Liam's character gets killed.  
"This is my last journey." 'Bill Corbett: 'Providing none of my daughters get kidnapped.'

Anyways, let's continue the with the siege.

* * *

 **Chapter 38: Perfects Attack Together! Sparkling Angewomon!**

 _Big Sight, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 0937 Hours.  
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After running for quite some time, we finally made it to Big Sight where everyone should be held. Taichi and I snuck up quietly to the place, where there was little activity on the outside.  
"There it is." He said.  
"I'm guessing all our foes are inside the place." I responded.  
"You ready for this?"  
"Can anyone truly be ready to march into Hell?"  
"No, but this is something we have to do."  
"What if we run into Vamdemon?"  
"We'll deal with it. Let's go." I nodded and followed him. As we began to run again towards one of the entrances, we looked up to see a familiar creature flying towards the building. "What's that?" Taichi questioned.  
"It's that rat, PicoDevimon, again. Where's he off two in such a hurry?"

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

I pounded my fist against the wall of the warehouse. Damn it! Damn it all!  
"How could this happen…?" Sora muttered.  
"I… I…" I kept pounding my fist. "I promised Ross and Taichi that I would protect her!"  
"Yamato. Nothing will get done if we give in to frustration. We have to save Hikari-chan!"  
"We should concentrate on what we're able to do." Garudamon insisted.  
"Let's go, Yamato!" encouraged Garurumon. They were right. No use getting mad now, not while Hikari is in danger.  
"You're right!" I told them. "I got it."

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

The waiting is the worst part of all this. After I got recaptured with Sora's mother, we were separated and I was placed in a line with a bunch of kids walking towards Tailmon. She was being force to identify the ninth child, at least that's what I heard. I still can't believe that she's actually on our side, looks like the others were right about that whole double agent thing. Vamdemon was right next to her and I feared what would happen when I walk up there. Would they kill me on the spot?

"Vamdemon-sama!" PicoDevimon shouted as he flew in.  
"What is it?"  
"Good news from Phantomon. We've found the ninth child." Both Vamdemon and Tailmon had surprised looks.  
"What?" Vamdemon questioned.  
"They found him?" I muttered to myself as to not draw attention. This is not good. Tailmon's look turned from one of surprise to complete sadness.  
"Did you hear that, Tailmon?" The vampire taunted. Tailmon's look now shifted to one of anger and rage. "All right. Now that I know that, I have no more use for this place."  
"Sir? What should we do with these brats?" PicoDevimon asked.  
"Put them to sleep. I'll savor them for later." The small bat snickered and then everything felt hazy. I felt a wave of tiredness hit me and I slowly fell over and closed my eyes.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We looked up once more to see Vamdemon and PicoDevimon flying away with Tailmon in his clutches.  
"Vamdemon." I whispered.  
"I wonder where he's going." Agumon said.  
"Wherever it is, it can't be good." Guilmon assumed.  
"Come on, let's find Mimi-kun, and go after that bloodsucker." Ross reminded us of our mission. We got inside and were running through the halls of the convention center, hoping to find anyone. We stopped when a bunch of Bakemon turned the corners and came right at us. "Ah, the welcoming committee. What do you wanna do?" Ross asked me.  
"Slag 'em."  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" The two dinosaurs used their fiery attacks to create a massacre where they roasted almost thirty Bakemon.  
"Thanks, Greymon!" "Good work, Growmon!" We gave our praise.

"Taichi-san! Ross-san!" A female voice from behind us called out. We turned to see Mimi in her pajamas running towards us.  
"Where are the others?" I asked.  
"They were all put to sleep by PicoDevimon. I was put to sleep as well, but somehow woke up. My Crest may have helped do that." She explained.  
"We saw Sora and Birdramon earlier; she was carrying a creature in her talons. Was that-?" Ross wondered.  
"Lilimon. Palmon's Perfect-Level. Vamdemon petrified her. But that's not important right now; the important thing is that Vamdemon said that he found the ninth child!" Our eyes widened so fast.  
"WHAT!?" We both shouted.  
"He found Hikari!?" Ross yelled.  
"What happened!?" I asked.  
"Hikari-chan?" Mimi was confused.  
"We'll explain on the way." Ross grabbed her hand as we ran again.  
"Let's go!" I said and we headed back towards the TV building.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I was spending the past couple of minutes talking with Yamato's dad when I noticed movement outside the building.  
"There's Yamato-san and Sora-san!" I informed both him and Tentomon.  
"What? Yamato?" He got up out of his chain and walked up to the window. "What is he doing here?" He quickly saw Garudamon and Garurumon and backed up. "M-Monsters!"  
"They're not monsters, they're Digimon." I explained. "The monsters that were being broadcasted on the news are called Digimon. But don't worry. The ones you saw just now with Yamato-san are on our side."  
"On our side? But…"  
"There are both evil and good Digimon. The ones you see out there are the good guys… no, they're our friends!"  
"That's right!" Tentomon said.  
"K-Kansai dialect…?" Yamato's father muttered in reference to Tentomon's voice.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

After we had brought Wizarmon along with us, we continued on our way to getting to Odaiba. Both Takeru and I were still having many questions about who he was.  
"But I wonder why he has a Tag and Crest?" Takeru said.  
"He said it was the ninth child's Crest but is he telling the truth?" We've been fooled multiple times before; I'm not letting us be caught off guard again. The wizard began making noises indicating that he was waking up.  
"He's awake!"  
"Who are you?" Wizarmon asked as he finally came to.  
"I'm Takeru. Nice to meet you." Wizarmon's eyes suddenly widened.  
"Hikari! Where is Hikari?"  
"Light?"  
"What do you mean, light?" I questioned.

"I have to give this to Hikari." He held up the Crest and Tag.  
"Give the Crest to light…?" I was really confused. Suddenly, the answer hit me like a freight train. "B-By 'light', you don't happen to mean Ross and Taichi's sister Hikari-chan, do you?! Then does that mean Hikari-chan is the ninth child?!"  
"R-Ross-san and Taichi-san's sister?!" Takeru was just as shocked.  
"Yes." Wizarmon answered. She was right under our nose the entire time!? I was right! "This thing is very important to both Hikari and Tailmon."  
"Tailmon?!" I questioned again. Wasn't Tailmon the one who kicked our butts at Vamdemon's castle?  
"Tailmon works for Vamdemon, doesn't she?" Takeru remembered.  
"She's Hikari-chan's Digimon?!"  
"Yes." Wizarmon nodded. Both Takeru and I looked at each other, not sure how to make all of this.

 _Fuji TV Building, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 0943 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

Sora and I ran towards the main plaza of the TV Building where we were awaited by Koushiro and Dad.  
"Yamato-san! Sora-san!" Koushiro called out to us.  
"Koushiro-kun! So this is where you were!" Sora said as Garudamon put her down.  
"Yamato!"  
"Dad!"  
"Why didn't you stay put?!" He looked pretty upset at me.  
"I'm sorry." Garurumon got close and freaked Dad out.  
"Hello, Yamato's father. We meet again." Garurumon nodded his head in a sort of bow.  
"A-Again? Who are you?"  
"I'm not Nanimon." Oh, yeah. A Digimon has that name of 'Who are you?' "I'm Garurumon, evolved from Gabumon."  
"Gabumon? Evolved?"

"Hey!" A voice called out from the distance.  
"Jou-senpai!" Sora said. We turned to see him, Takeru, Patamon, some sort of smaller creature, and a giant turtle walrus that must be Gomamon's Perfect-Level approaching us.  
"Onii-chan! Papa!"  
"Takeru!"  
"Takeru…" Dad muttered as Takeru ran up and hugged him.  
"Papa!"  
"Why… are you here?"  
"I was so worried about you and Onii-chan that I just had to come here! Mama came with me but we got separated along the way." Dad didn't say anything but put a hand on Takeru's head and smiled, indicating how proud he was of Takeru's bravery.

Our attention was quickly changed towards the mysterious Digimon that came along with them as he walked up towards the petrified Lilimon was in Garudamon's hand.  
"Who is that Digimon?" Koushiro questioned.  
"What are you planning to do?" I demanded.  
"Was she attacked by Vamdemon's Dead Scream?" The Digimon inquired.  
"So what if she was?" Sora asked in a distrustful voice. The Digimon merely put his hands up, made some hand symbols and then they turned green as he held them up to Lilimon. Soon, the flower pixie was engulfed in green light before she started to twitch and color returned to her. She gasped along with the rest of us. "Lilimon!"  
"Huh? I…" Lilimon was trying to remember what happened in the past hour. She then smiled and flew out of in front of us, looking ready for action again.

Takeru ran over to Lilimon's reviver and shielded him.  
"This guy isn't a bad Digimon! He has a Tag and Crest!" Takeru explained. Our eyes widened and our mouths dropped a bit on that news.  
"A Crest?" Sora questioned.  
"He's not lying, it's the truth!" Jou backed up Takeru's claim. "Look." The Digimon then held out a Tag with a pink star object that was the Crest.  
"This is…" I mumbled.  
"Hikari's Tag and Crest." The Digimon said. "Tailmon has been taken by Vamdemon and I want to save her."  
"Tailmon?" Sora wondered. Oh, yeah, I didn't explain anything to her yet.  
"Tailmon is the ninth Digimon!" Takeru informed much to the surprise of some of the others.

"So wait, by Hikari…?" Koushiro seemed to try to figure things out.  
"Ross-kun and Taichi-kun's little sister Hikari is the child we were looking for." Jou answered, leaving a couple of us gasping again.  
"Hey, you're name isn't Wizarmon, is it?" I asked the Digimon.  
"Yes. That is my name."  
"Tailmon's friend. The others thought you were dead."  
"Not yet. It'll take more than that for me to be finished. But enough of that, where is Hikari?"  
"Well…" I almost didn't have the stomach to tell him. "Hikari's been captured and taken to the roof of the building."  
"According to the e-main Gennai-san sent me… That's where the source of Vamdemon's barrier is!" Koushiro told us. We all looked up and saw sure enough that damn vampire was flying right towards the viewing platform, the ball shaped object that was towards the roof.  
"It's Vamdemon!" I shouted.  
"Tailmon!" Wizarmon cried. "Vamdemon…!" His voice got dark as it was full of anger.

"Guys! Let's go up to the view platform!" I ordered.  
"All right! I'll guide you there!" Dad said. We were about to move when the ground exploded in front of us and Tuskmon and Snimon showed up again. Snimon swung down and nearly impaled Sora but she managed to back away just in time.  
"Garurumon, super-evolve! WEREGARURUMON!" WereGarurumon made short work of the two attackers with his powerful kicks and brass knuckles.  
"We'll take care of them." Garudamon informed us.  
"Go save Hikari!" Gomamon's Perfect-Level said.  
"Okay." I nodded.  
"All right, let's go!" Dad motioned us to move.  
"Yeah!" We all said as we ran for the door. Wizarmon fell over and Takeru ran back for him.  
"Wizarmon! Are you okay?" Dad ran over to him after that.  
"Let me give you a hand! Come on!" He picked up the wizard Digimon and we once again ran for the door.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

After I was brought up to the viewing platform at the TV building, the phantom Digimon just kept a close watch on me. I guess we were just waiting for Vamdemon to show up. I took the time to say a quick pray to God in the hopes of being saved. After I finished, I just kept on a brave face like Ross and Taichi would do if they were in this situation.

"I must admit, you've surprised me, little girl." The reaper spoke. "We had no idea who you were. Why exactly did you come forward and say who you were?"  
"I couldn't stand by and watch you hurt my friends." I said. The Digimon's eyes widened.  
"Is that right? Well… how noble of you… but also quite foolish." Suddenly the sounds of bats filled the air and I looked up to see a swarm of bats on the ceiling. Then a tall, dark, creature phased through them while holding Tailmon and a small bat like creature followed right behind. This must be Vamdemon and PicoDevimon. I was beginning to feel the chill of fear through my body, but I quickly shook that away. Have to be brave! Have to be brave! Come on, Hikari! Be brave! Nothing was said as the vampire landed. He merely just chuckled in an evil tone.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Greymon and Growmon were running as fast as they could towards the TV building where Vamdemon went. We all hanged on as we tried to hurry and save Hikari. Up ahead, we could see a bunch of Digimon fight, some of them ours.  
"What's that?" Mimi questioned as she hanged on to Ross's back.  
"Looks like the fight has already started." Ross said.  
"Faster, Greymon! Hurry!" I ordered.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

"Little girl." The cruel vampire finally spoke. "Why did you reveal yourself? Do you know what I'll do to you?"  
"I'm well aware of what it is."  
"Then why?"  
"You're hurting everyone."  
"What?" He didn't expect that answer. At this point, I started to get riled up. Taichi and Ross would yell at the vampire, and so will I.  
"I did it because you're hurting everyone! So many innocent people had nothing to do with this! This is just between you and me! That's why I've come forward!" Vamdemon was still surprised and actually taken aback by my courage. The guys would be proud, I'm sure of it. The vampire quickly regained his composure.

"You're quite a bold little girl. Tailmon. Why aren't you looking at the ninth child?"  
"Because I don't know her." Looks like Tailmon is trying to bluff the vampire in order to keep protecting me. "She's not the ninth child."  
"I see." Vamdemon merely snapped his fingers and then I suddenly shouted out in pain as I felt PicoDevimon pulling on my hair.  
"Hikari!" Tailmon shouted out. Unfortunately, it made her drop the bluff.  
"That hurts!" I shouted at the bat Digimon.  
"I see. The ninth child's name is Hikari." Vamdemon said.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Hurry!" Hiroaki told the kids as they were a level below the observation deck. "It's up here!"  
"Okay!" Yamato said. "Thanks, Dad" He and the other kids went ahead of him.  
"I'll be going too." Wizarmon informed the older man.  
"Will you be okay?" Hiroaki asked.  
"Yes." He ran off to join the others.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

Vamdemon let Tailmon go and she wasted no time to hurry and run in front of me to protect me.  
"Hikari. Tailmon." Vamdemon said our names. "You'd best prepare yourselves. Dead Scream!"  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" Vamdemon's attempt to kill us was interrupted when Kabuterimon flew into the deck. "Mega Blaster!"  
"Flower Cannon!" That plant pixie that now was revived announced her attack. Vamdemon just blew some breath out and both attacks were sent straight into the roof. The others had finally come including Wizarmon who was alive! Suddenly I felt myself being pulled upward like some sort of tractor beam.  
"It's gotten noisy here. We'll move to a quieter place." Vamdemon informed.  
"I won't let you!" Yamato shouted out. "WereGarurumon!" I looked downward to see the wolf Digimon clawing his way up the side of the building before he placed himself in front of the vampire. He merely just laughed.

"You have no time to be laughing!" Sora reminded him. Garudamon flew up to the roof carrying what I think is Gomamon's Perfect-Level.  
"Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!" Now, Vamdemon had five angry looking Perfects staring him and his cronies down.  
"AtlurKabuterimon! Save Hikari-kun!" ordered Koushiro.  
"Horn Buster!" He charged ahead but Vamdemon moved his hand and force the giant bug off course and nearly knocked WereGarurumon off the roof.  
"Bloody Stream!" The red whip struck the wolf in his hands and sent him falling.  
"WereGarurumon!" Yamato cried out.  
"You're wasting your time." Vamdemon taunted before he shouted out and fell over in pain after being struck in the back by Wizarmon. "What?!"  
"Hikari! Catch!" Wizarmon tossed to me my Crest and Tag, the real one I assumed.  
"Wizarmon!" Tailmon cheered.

"You're still alive?" Vamdemon was surprised by the sheer fact that Wizarmon stood before him.  
"I'm the type who makes sure to pay back all of my debts."  
"Silence!" He sent out a small ball of energy that struck Wizarmon in the chest and sent him crashing into the dome's wall.  
"Wizarmon!" Tailmon shouted.  
"Little girl! Hand that over!" He demanded.  
"No!" I defied him.  
"Do as I say or else!"  
"Wait!" A familiar voice yelled out. I turned to see Taichi and Ross standing on the opposite walkway.  
"You'll suffer terribly if you lay a hand on our sister!" Ross threatened.  
"Hikari! Catch!" Taichi called out and threw my Digivice to me. I ran over and caught it. Unfortunately, PicoDevimon dived on me and plucked it right out of my hands.

"Vamdemon-sama! As long as we have this, there's nothing to fear!"  
"Nice work!" The vampire turned his attention to my brothers. "You two are not even worth facing!"  
"Worth facing?!" "Say that again?!" They yelled out as the phantom Digimon approached them, and then tried to slice them.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" The phantom slowed down before trying to retreat but it was too late. MetalGreymon sliced him with his metal claws and sent him straight towards MegaloGrowmon who swung his arm scythes and cleaved the head off the phantom who disintegrated into data.  
"That was for earlier, Phantomon!" Ross called out.  
"Go, MetalGreymon, MegaloGrowmon!" Taichi ordered both Perfects.

"Giga Destroyer!" "Atomic Blaster!" Vamdemon didn't even flinch as he just held up his hands and both attacks turned to dust.  
"What?!" Ross and Taichi questioned.  
"Horn Buster!" "Hammer Spark!" "Shadow Wing!" "Flower Cannon!" Like before, Vamdemon just held up his hands and the attacks were defeated.  
"Watch out, Zudomon!" Jou called out.  
"Damn it, he's strong. Too strong." cursed Yamato.  
"Are you satisfied, everyone?" Vamdemon questioned. "Now are you finished?" He turned his attention back towards Tailmon and me. I tightened my fists, ready to try to at least resist anything he'd send towards us.  
"Night…!"  
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!"

Once again, the vampire couldn't finish us off as he had to turn his attention to yet another adversary, this one that actually made him worry. The guys really weren't kidding about the appearance of Angemon. Breathtaking as a friend, terrifying as a foe.  
"Oh no!" Vamdemon muttered under his breath.  
"Heaven's Knuckle!" The beam of light struck Vamdemon right in the stomach and he fell to his knees clutching himself in pain.  
"Vamdemon! Give yourself up!" Angemon ordered his surrender.  
"Don't think that was enough to defeat me! NIGHT RAID!" He quickly turned and launched his attack right towards me and Tailmon!  
"HIKARI!" Ross and Taichi yelled out. I couldn't even close my eyes. I watched as I saw my own doom approach me… and saw Wizarmon jump right in front to take the full force of the attack to our shock!

He fell right on his back, torn to shreds and his eyes were wide open.  
"You little pipsqueak… What nerve for getting in my way!" Vamdemon shouted at the fallen wizard.  
"Wizarmon!" Tailmon cried out as we both ran up to him.  
"Wizarmon! You can't die! Don't die! Wizarmon!" I begged with tears beginning to form in my eyes. He turned to look at Tailmon.  
"Are you all right… Tailmon…?" He choked out, his breath sounding labored.  
"Wizarmon… I'm sorry…" Tailmon was starting to cry as well.  
"For what?"  
"I'm sorry for getting you into this…" The wizard only smiled, though it was covered by his cloak.  
"It's fine. If I hadn't met you, I would have lived a life with no meaning… I'm glad I got to know you."  
"Wizarmon…"  
"Thank… you…" He muttered his final words as his head fell over.  
"No… Wizarmon…" I mumbled. Wizarmon had given his life to save me and Tailmon. Everyone had been risking themselves trying to save us. It wasn't fair… Why must I be so useless to the others? Why can't I be the one to truly defend myself? Why do others have to now start dying for me? This can't be allowed to continue! I won't allow it to continue!

The darkness cannot be allowed to win!

"NO!" I screamed out. I saw a bright light being shined out of my Digivice much to the pain of PicoDevimon.  
"Hikari's Digivice…" Taichi informed.  
"I can't hold on…!" cried out PicoDevimon. He dropped it and Taichi caught it.  
"Hikari! Catch!" He threw it my way and I was able to catch it, and this time, I wasn't losing it!  
"No!" Vamdemon shouted in terror. My Digivice suddenly turned pink with the buttons becoming white and it shot out a light that reflected off my Crest and went straight for Tailmon.  
"Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!" The others and I were completely awestruck by the sight of Angewomon. She was similar to Angemon with six pure wings.  
"Tailmon is… An angel…" I muttered in complete shock.

"Vamdemon." The female angel addressed the cruel Digimon. "Not only did you interfere with the Chosen Children's mission, but you have invaded the human world and killed my friend, Wizarmon. Learn the full weight of you sins!"  
"I will change everything in this world into darkness! After fusing this place with the Digital World, I will become its sole ruler! I only did what I was destined to do!" Typical villain speech. Unrepentant even when they know they're doomed.  
"Vamdemon." Angemon now addressed the vampire. "Does this mean you have no intent of repenting for you sins?"  
"Dead…"  
"Saint Air!" Angewomon sent out a pure ring of light into the air, and from the center of the ring, a rainbow colored light blanked the entire area. Vamdemon was stopped in his tracks as he was paralyzed on the spot.  
"My strength is being restored!" alerted MetalGreymon.  
"Now!" WereGarurumon shouted as he jumped back on the roof.  
"Give our power to Angewomon!" Garudamon suggested.

"Horn Buster!" "Flower Cannon!" "Hammer Spark!" "Kaiser Nail!" "Shadow Wing!" "Atomic Blaster!" "Giga Destroyer!" "Heaven's Knuckle!" All attacks went flying into the center of the holy ring and combined into a large green light.  
"Holy Arrow!" The glove on Angewomon's left hand turned into a winged bow and the green energy shot into her right hand which formed into an arrow. She loaded it up like a normal bow and arrow and aimed right for the vampire.  
"Don't!" Vamdemon begged. Angewomon didn't listen as she let loose the pure arrow and it flew right through the vampire's chest. He screamed out in pain before he exploded in a bright light.  
"Vamdemon… disappeared…" I said.  
"Hikari!" Ross and Taichi ran up to me and quickly embraced me.  
"All right!" The other kids cheered. Suddenly the whole building began to shake.  
"It's dangerous here! Let's run for it!" Sora informed and we all quickly got off the roof as the observation dome came off the building and crashed to the ground.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Well, we did it. We finally killed that bloodsucker! Of course, it came at a price again. Angemon used up all of his energy to defeat Devimon and reverted back to an egg. Wizarmon didn't, which meant he was truly gone. But his sacrifice was not in vain.  
"We defeated Vamdemon!" Taichi cheered.  
"I knew we had it in us! Right?" Jou said.  
"Yeah!" Mimi responded.  
"Do you think the world is back to normal now?" Yamato wondered.  
"Who knows?" I told him.  
"What's wrong, you two?" Sora asked Takeru and Hikari who stood away from us.  
"Look around you." Takeru observed.  
"What?" questioned Yamato.  
"The fog… It's not going away." Hikari pointed out.  
"What?" Taichi now questioned. We all looked up and sure enough the fog wasn't receding. If anything, it was getting thicker.

We defeated Vamdemon, it should go away. Right…?

* * *

And that was Chapter 38.

Hope no one really minds that MegaloGrowmon got the kill on Phantomon, but it's not like it changed much. He did almost nothing in the fight except be a one-hitter quitter when struck by Angemon's Heaven's Knuckle.

Anyways, see you all later... sometime soon, schools really gonna pile on soon.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	40. Revival! The Devil, VenomVamdemon!

Chapter 39 is here! Sorry for being a little long in between, I just was a bit slow when not really put on the deadline, what with school work as well as being distracted by some movies and baseball. Tyler 'Big Puddin' White hit his first walk off homer today!

Shout out to **girani4** and **mrkiller5889** for your faves and follows. And to **MadDogLucario** for another review. Thank you all.

Anyways, there's still the fog barrier up and Big Sight to clear out. Let's us continue...

* * *

 **Chapter 39: Revival! The Devil, VenomVamdemon!**

 _Fuji TV Building, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 1012 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

To say that we were upset was kinda of an understatement. After having close calls and sacrifices, we were finally able to stake Digimon Nosferatu, only to find that his damn fog barrier wasn't going away.  
"Damn it!" Taichi yelled as he kicked Vamdemon's mask away.  
"Defeating Vamdemon wasn't enough…" growled Yamato.  
"No way!" Mimi worried. "Does that mean we'll be stuck in here forever?"  
"Maybe we need to destroy every last Digimon that serves Vamdemon…" I said.  
"E-mail." Koushiro spoke up. We all turned to see him on his laptop and gathered around him. "It's from Gennai-san!"  
"Rejoice, children!" A Chibi looking Gennai cried on the screen. "I've found a hint to defeating Vamdemon!" The screen showed a bunch of symbols that looked like they were carved into a wall. "These are prophetic inscriptions that I've found in the ancient ruins! 'First, the sky will be concealed by a flock of bats.' Then it says, 'The people will chant the name of the Undead Digimon King. When the clock strikes the number of the Beast, the Undead Digimon King will reveal his true form as the beast. Then angels will let fly the arrows of hope and light at the loved ones of those whom they are to protect, and a miracle will happen.' Well, I wish you luck!"

"Hey, does he mention anything about making this fog go away?" Sora asked.  
"Well…" Koushiro couldn't give a definitive answer.  
"Onii-chan… Let's hurry back to Mom and Dad." Hikari suggested.  
"Yeah."  
"I'd like to see what happened to my place, too." Jou said.  
"I want to change out of my pajamas." Mimi informed.  
"And I need to eat something. In fact, I pretty sure none of us had anything to eat." I added.  
"All right. Here's the plan. I say we all head over to our places, gather some things and get food in our bellies; then all meet up near Big Sight where we take it back." Taichi gave out a plan.  
"Yeah." We all nodded and walked away from the wrecked building.

Taichi, Hikari, and I split from the others to check back our apartment. At first, I thought the Bakemon had blown down the door earlier, but actually they had just knocked it open. After quickly checking up on Drew and Miko, we got ourselves some breakfast. We were at the end of our rope and not eating anything after our huge fight was terrible idea.  
"So that's how you were captured?" Taichi finally said after Hikari explained what had happened after we left.  
"Well, I couldn't let Phantomon kill Yamato-san and Sora-san, could I? You guys should've seen me; I kept a brave face the whole time. Even when Vamdemon stood before me, I didn't show any fear."  
"We believe you, Hikari, we're just glad you're alright." I said to her.  
"Well, almost all of us are all right…" Tailmon sadly reminded us of Wizarmon's sacrifice. Our mood quickly soured.  
"He was a true friend even in the end." Agumon muttered.  
"Couldn't ask any more of him." Guilmon added.  
"Maybe we can say a few quick words for him." Taichi suggested. We nodded and quietly prayed.

 _Odaiba Mansion, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 1043 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

Mimi went off to her own place to get some clothes as well as her things while Ross, Taichi and Hikari went over to their place to check on their pets and get some food. The rest of us headed back to my apartment where we'd get some breakfast as well as check up on how my folks were doing. Funny enough, it turns out that Jou also lived in my building and I had no idea. After finding that my parents were still okay behind the barrier, I lead them outside to the others.

"Just what is going on here?" My dad questioned.  
"Let me explain." Yamato's father walked up and talked to them. I looked behind the others to see Mimi running towards us, back in her usual outfit and having some toast in her mouth.  
"Thanks for waiting?" She said.  
"Waiting? I thought we were all going to meet back up near Big Sight?" Yamato remembered the plan.  
"Yeah, well, I just thought that it would be better to stick more together. Hey, is Jou-senpai here yet?"  
"Not yet, he lives up there." Sora pointed out.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

This place is a mess! Looks like the Bakemon ransacked the place when they raided.  
"Dad! Mom!" I called out but no response. "My brothers aren't here either."  
"They must have been caught with the others. Let's go back." Pukamon believed.  
"Yeah…" I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and screamed out.  
"Bakemon?!"  
"That's a mean thing to say. You shouldn't go around calling other people monsters." Shin said. He thought we were saying Bakemono which translates to monster.  
"S-Shin-niisan! You're safe!" I shouted in surprised as I turned to see my eldest brother was in the closet.  
"Safe? What do you mean by that?" He hopped out. "Who made this mess?!"  
"The Bakemon!" Pukamon explained.  
"Wh-Who are you?" Huh, he's taking Pukamon's appearance a lot better than I did when I first met him. Then again, I'm kinda of a wreck compared to Shin. How he keeps it all together is beyond me.

"E-Er, I'll explain everything later…" I said. "By the way, why were you sleeping in the closet?"  
"I've always slept here ever since we moved to Odaiba. Didn't you know that?"  
"Nope."  
"But we've lived together all this time." Am I really that unobservant? After that, we walked out where we met with the others.  
"Then, you'll be checking things out at Big Sight. We'll look for a way to break through the fog." Yamato's Dad told us as he, Yamato and Takeru were going to split up from us. Takeru nodded at the idea and we all went our separate ways.

I held on to Shin tight as his moped pulled up to Big Sight. No sign of any activity. The Bakemon must be inside. I wonder if they know that Vamdemon has been killed.  
"Jou. Are you really planning on becoming a doctor like me?" Shin asked. What? Is now really the time for the conversation about my future?  
"You're a doctor?" Pukamon shouted out from my duffle bag that I recently filled with things that really would've been great back in the Digital World.  
"I'm still in med school."  
"Wow, you must be really smart!"  
"Dad told me to be one…" I muttered. That's always been a thing for the Kido men, becoming a healer or a doctor. It runs in the family. Our grandfather is a doctor, Dad's a doctor, Mom's a nurse, both Shin and Shuu are planning to be ones, and then there's me…

"It's impossible for you." said Shin. I nodded and Pukamon took offence to that.  
"Hey! I don't care if you are Jou's brother, you've got no right to make fun of him!" Shin smiled at the upset Digimon.  
"Fierce, aren't you? But no, I'm not making fun of him. I just don't think it's a suitable profession for him since he faints at the sight of blood."  
"Oh, then I'll have to agree."  
"Anyway, we'll talk about this later. The others are here." I looked over to see that Taichi's group had rejoined the girls and Koushiro and were running over here.  
"Hey, guys." I greeted as they came over.  
"Hey, Jou-san." Taichi said. "Okay, listen up, we're gonna get in there and deal with any remaining Bakemon. Watch out, they like to Banzai charge ya."  
"Right." We all nodded and headed in.

 _Big Sight, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 1112 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We snuck quietly in through the front gates of the convention center and found a few Bakemon floating around, looking confused on at least what they were needing to do now. It would be the last thing they'd ever think.  
"Let's go, guys!" Agumon ordered.  
"…Evolve!" The Baby Digimon cried out. "Piyomon!" "Tentomon!" "Gomamon!" "Palmon!"  
"Neko Punch!" "Baby Flame!" "Fireball!" "Petit Thunder!" "Marching Fishes!" "Poison Ivy!" "Magical Fire!" It wasn't even a challenge; we cleared out the whole place in just a few minutes. Bakemon as themselves turned out to be pretty weak, it's only when they combine to become Bakemon-sama that they're an actual threat. The fog was still out there, but at least we may have defeated most of Vamdemon's army at this point. The last thing we truly need is after all of this is done and over with is for some stragglers to harm folks.  
"Thanks, guys!" Taichi praised as we ran towards some of the main rooms.

It looked like the Bakemon had been busy while we were gone; they had organized all the prisoners straight on their backs. Mimi wanted me to check to see how the kids were doing so I did. I found Takeo was one of the captors as well as right near him a boy that looked so much like Taichi, it was spooky. When I got no responses from any of them, I walked back into the main room where the others had found their parents.  
"Mom! Wake up!" "Dad, you too!" "Mom!" "Papa, Mama!" I walked over to Taichi and Hikari.  
"Hey, you guys found Dad?" They both looked at me and shook their heads. "Has anyone found my dad?!" I shouted. The others looked over and shook their heads as well. "Come on! He's a balding Caucasian man with glasses! He shouldn't be that hard to find in this mess! Sora, you said he was leading the breakout, right?"  
"Last I saw him, yes."  
"Ross… you don't think…" Guilmon spoke up and I knew exactly what he was about to say.  
"Don't! I don't need that right now! Come on, let's go look for him!"

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

As Ross went to look for his father, Shin and I were looking over Mom and Dad who were in the same coma-like state as the rest of the crowd.  
"I thought it was just the fog that hadn't changed…" I muttered as Shin examined Mom and Dad.  
"His pulse is normal." Shin informed.  
"Dad…"  
"Jou. Listen… You don't have to live your life the way our parents want you to."  
"Huh?"  
"The truth is, I won't be either. After I take the national exam, I'm thinking of working in an isolated island that has no doctors."  
"What, something like Doctors Without Borders?"  
"That's fine too. Either way, Dad will probably go nuts when he hears about it."  
"I didn't know."  
"Well, putting that aside, taking care of these people comes first."  
"I'm glad Shuu not a part of this, you know, what with his school camp thing as well." Shin nodded.  
"If only we could get help from the outside."

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

This was actually a terrible idea. We found ourselves a small inflatable raft that apparently someone was trying to use to get out of the city, but there was no sign of the owner meaning they were probably dragged over to Big Sight. Anyways, we took the raft and floated out into the bay, hopeful that we could reach the mainland, even though this whole country is technically several giant islands.

"It's impossible for us to get through this fog." Dad sighed.  
"Hey! Takeru's mommy, can you hear me?" Patamon called out into the fog bank.  
"I'll help. Takeru's mommy!" Gabumon shouted out as well.  
"Hey, join us, Takeru."  
"But… She can't hear us from here." Takeru admitted.  
"Really?"  
"Hey, Takeru, we don't need to worry about any bad Digimon, right?" I asked.  
"Not really, MegaSeadramon took out part of the bridge but Ikkakumon evolved into Zudomon and defeated him, so I think we should be fine."  
"Well, we're not getting through, let's turn around." Dad said and we headed back to shore.

As it turns out, we seemed to have forgotten something important as we came back ashore. As soon as we landed, the Gizamon that had attacked Dad in the night had jumped out of the water and ambushed us. How did we forget that? And why didn't they try to deal with Zudomon when they broke through the barrier?

"Petit Fire!" "Air Shot!" Our two Digimon jumped to our defense but there was a lot of those amphibians and not enough of us.  
"There's too many of them! Let's get out of here!" Dad suggested as we ran to company van that Dad had borrowed from the station.  
"Hurry!" Takeru shouted out to Patamon and Gabumon to give them the order to fall back. We got in the van but the thing refused to start and the Gizamon had begun to hop on the car before they tipped us over! "N-No!" Takeru cried out. Is this how it goes for us? We managed to survive against Vamdemon only to be taken out by these frogs? I guess not, as suddenly there were a bunch of weird noises outside and the Gizamon vanished. The only thing that was left behind was a bunch of bats flying away.  
"What just happened?" I asked as we climbed out to the side of the van that wasn't pinned into the ground.  
"Look at that!" Takeru pointed to the mass of bats flying back towards the TV building.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"'First, the sky will be concealed by a flock of bats.'" Hiroaki recited back the first part of the prophecy that Gennai had explained earlier. Back at the remains of the TV Building, the bats were flocking around Vamdemon's mask that laid on the ground. This was to the great humor of PicoDevimon who managed to escape from being destroyed like his master… or so the Chosen Children thought.  
"The real terror is just beginning!" The Bat Digimon laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

Looking at all these people, I feel so guilty. They're all like this because of me. I know Vamdemon wanted to kill me and according to Tailmon was going to feed off everyone after that, but still.  
"It's my fault they're like this." I muttered.  
"It's my fault, too." Tailmon took blame as well.  
"Don't worry!" Sora assured me. "They're just sleeping. Everyone will wake up soon." We can only hope so. We both nodded at her words. "Right? Mom…" She whispered to her mother.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Guilmon and I were searching up and down this entire convention center for any sign of Dad but we just couldn't find him… maybe Guilmon was right… maybe he had been killed to serve as an example to the others about the cost of rebellion.  
"Here, I'll check around this corner." Guilmon walked around while I stopped and sighed. I then heard some scuffling sounds from around the corner. I quickly ran around… and found Dad trying to strangle Guilmon with a metal pole. "Found him!" Guilmon choked out.  
"Dad!" I shouted. He quickly looked up at me. "Stop strangling Guilmon!" Dad looked back down at Guilmon and pulled him out of the chokehold he had him in.  
"Sorry. I thought he was one of them."  
"Well, yes, I am one of them in terms of being a Digimon. But I assure you my loyalty is not to that vampire, but to Ross. My name is Guilmon, please to meet you Captain McGlathery." He held out his hand and the two of them shook hands. "Ross has said nothing but good things about you."  
"Uh, pleased to meet you too, uh, Guilmon. What the hell is going on?" He asked me.

"It's a long story. But the first thing I've got to ask is how did you escape the Bakemon?"  
"I was leading the breakout and kept swatting those freaks away. By the time I realized it, I was last one standing, the others had been recaptured so I hid and tried to wait for an opening to sneak away. Maybe try to get out of Odaiba and get help or go to a nearby police station and come back with some firearms."  
"I don't know what a gun would do to a Ghost Digimon, but, it's nice to see you didn't end up like the others."  
"I've spent almost a year and a half in a prison camp; I wasn't planning to spend time in another one." I laughed at that. "You okay, Ross?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine, but this whole thing ain't over yet, it's just a respite." I soon noticed Guilmon walking away. "Where are you going?"  
"Oh, I thought maybe you'd like to tell your dad somethings in private." Guilmon reminded me about the fact that I still need to talk to Dad about the depression.  
"Tell me what?" Dad questioned.  
"It's like this, Dad…"

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

"What did you want to talk with me about?" I asked. Mom and Dad showed up at Big Sight a few minutes ago and asked if I could talk to them privately about something.  
"While the two of us were hiding at home, we talked and we've decided that it's time we finally told you this." Dad explained. Oh, so that's why they wanted to say this in private. "The truth is… We're not your real parents."  
"I already know." They both looked incredibly guilty about all this. "I tried to pretend that I hadn't heard anything. I thought that by acting normal, things would stay the same as before… But I couldn't do it. The more I tried to act as if things hadn't changed, the more weirder it felt… In the end… I grew drawn to my computer so I wouldn't have to show anyone my true self…"  
"There is nothing wrong with being into computers!" Dad quickly defended to my surprise.  
"Dad…"  
"That trait of yours is what makes you who you are. Still, you really are exactly like your real father."  
"My real father?"

"He was a distant relative of mine… And a genius mathematician. He was also a lecturer at a university. Twelve years ago, he married your real mother and they had you. He was with her when they met a terrible car accident. Neither of them survived."  
"We had a child of our own once." Mom revealed. "A little boy. But he died when he was just a baby… his heart never fully developed and he only lived a few days." So I guess we were all looking to fill a void, even if I wasn't old enough to remember anything. "Then, when we were asked if we could take care of you… Well…"  
"So that's what happened." I said.  
"We had planned to tell you everything when you were older. But we didn't think that you would have already figured it out. This must have been hard for you to deal with on your own. I'm sorry." Dad apologized.

"No… Actually, I'm really grateful that you told me the truth. Thank you." Wait, that sounds too formal. "I… I mean… Th… Thanks… For everything that it means… you guys are my real parents, even if that's not really true. I've known you guys as that for most of my life and even after all this… I don't want that to change."  
"You don't have to change yourself for us."  
"Yes. All we want is for you to be happy." Mom informed. I felt tears beginning to form in my eyes. I ran up and hugged her and we all so had a group hug as I just began to cry.  
"Koushiro-han! Cry your heart out! Let yourself be pampered!" I could hear Tentomon crying from around the corner.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"So that's what happened." Dad said.  
"I just let myself believe that I was truly alone, that you were gone forever, that I had no real direction to go and I tried to end it all that day. I'm truly sorry…" I finished explaining.  
"Don't apologize. And don't think you're the only person in this family to suffer from depression. I went through the same thing too. It was hard losing Mom to that tumor when I was starting college, and then after marrying your mother; losing Dad to a heart attack only a few months after that. Then of course there was your mother… I admit, I was in the same place… but I still had you, I still had to raise you and that's what kept me going."  
"You said before that leaving me alone was your greatest fear in that camp."  
"Yeah, it was. Ross, I just want you to understand, that no matter what, you will not be alone, even if I'm gone. You still have the Yagami's, Susumu has always been a brother to me and I'm eternally grateful that he was willing to raise you even when I was suffering in captivity."  
"I've only come to that realization in the past few days… If it wasn't for Guilmon talking to me that day he first evolved into Growmon… I don't know if I'd ever fully admit my problems."  
"Well, then my eternal thanks goes out to Guilmon as well then. Just remember Ross, I'll still be there for you… even if I'm not breathing no more." I walked forward and hugged him after he said that.  
"Thanks, Dad…"

That conversation felt good. I wasn't fully over everything yet, but I might as well be. Most of my causing in terms of the depression had been settled but one conversation doesn't full cure it. But darn it if it sure helps the world. After that, we walked back in the main room where greeted everyone once more and checked to see if there was any changes with any of the victims. The next few hours were more or less a waiting game until we finally had a change… and it was not a good one.  
"Sora!" Piyomon cried out. "Your mother!" We all turned to see Sora's mother sitting straight up and her hands held out.  
"Vamdemon-sama. Vamdemon-sama. Vamdemon-sama." She said in a monotonous tone, almost as if she was chanting in a hypnotized state.  
"Mom, what's wrong? Mom!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"More data!" Vamdemon's voice rang out. His mask was being lifted into the air by a dark shadow.  
"Vamdemon-sama!" PicoDevimon cheered.  
"More power!"  
"Very well!" He sent out the bats that proceeded to devour and absorb the life energy all of the remaining Digimon that come along with Vamdemon in his crusade. They had served their purpose. "Just a little longer before Vamdemon-sama is full restored!" The bat laughed once more.

 _P.O.V. - Yamato Ishida_

After Sora's mother began her chanting, the rest of the comatose victims in the convention center followed suit.  
"Vamdemon-sama. Vamdemon-sama. Vamdemon-sama." The people kept chanting.  
"Stop that, Dad!" "Mom!" "Papa, Mama!" The others tried to snap their parents out of the chanting.  
"Wh-What is this?" Dad questioned.  
"In physical terms, everyone is still asleep…" Shin gave his prognosis. "So technically speaking, they're all sleep talking…"  
"Um, you know… There's something about this that bothers me." Koushiro spoke up.  
"The prophecy, right?" I guessed. "'The people will chant the name of the Undead Digimon King.'" I recalled the next part.  
"Yes."  
"The part about the bats was true, too!" informed Gabumon.  
"What?" Taichi questioned.  
"What was the third line?" Sora asked.

"'When the clock strikes the number of the Beast, the Undead Digimon King will reveal his true form as the beast.'" Koushiro repeated.  
"What does 'the number of the Beast' mean?" Jou wondered.  
"Six-six-six." Ross's dad said. "That's the number that the Bible mentions at the end of the New Testament, in the Book of Revelations."  
"Oh, yeah…" Taichi muttered.  
"Revelation Thirteen-Eighteen: 'This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is six-six-six.'" Ross read off a passage from his pocket bible. "Is that prophecy trying to say that Vamdemon is the Devil?"  
"That or Satan's pet at least." His father answered.  
"So, six-six-six, must mean… Six o' six and six second!" Taichi concluded as he pulled out his Digivice. "There's not much time! We've only got six minutes!"  
"Quick! In the car!" Dad said.

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 1806 Hours._

Myself, Dad, Taichi, Ross and his dad as well as our Digimon all hopped into the van and put the pedal to the metal as we drove towards the remains of the Fuji TV Building.  
"We won't make it!" Taichi yelled. He was right. The building suddenly flashed with light and as utterly devastated when the reborn Vamdemon stood up to a towering height. He looked much different now. He was red and black with gigantic demonic wings and a lower body that resembled a beast.  
"Is that… Vamdemon?" Taichi was dumbstruck as we stopped and got out of the car.  
"But he's huge!" I shouted.  
"You were right about Satan's pet, Dad." Ross worried.  
"God Almighty, help us…" Ross's dad muttered.  
"He truly is beast-like." Dad observed.  
"Let's go, Gabumon, Guilmon!" Agumon charged forward.  
"Yeah." Gabumon followed close behind while Ross grabbed Guilmon.  
"No, stay in reserve." Guilmon reluctantly nodded.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!" "Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!"

The two Adult-Level Digimon charged ahead while Vamdemon turned around to face them. The sheer winds that picked up just by him turning were almost enough to send them flying. We somehow heard a familiar laughter amongst everything.  
"Looks like you can't even speak before VenomVamdemon's power." PicoDevimon taunted.  
"VenomVamdemon?" Taichi questioned.  
"Being undead means he possesses invulnerability!"  
"Power…" VenomVamdemon roared. "I need more power…" He sounded much different. Vamdemon sounded pretty intelligent and calculating; VenomVamdemon sounded more like he traded his brains for brawn.  
"You meal is waiting for you at Big Sight. Come along, sir, I will lead you there."  
"I'll start with you first." He began to inhale.  
"Wh-What are you doing, sir?! AHHHHHH!" PicoDevimon screamed as he was devoured by the titanic Digimon.

"He's headed towards the people at Big Sight!" Dad said.  
"It'll be a mass slaughter if he reaches there." The captain feared.  
"We won't let him near them!" determined Taichi.  
"Garurumon!" I called out.  
"I know, Yamato!" He was aware of the stakes.  
"Let's go!" Greymon shouted.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Garurumon, super-evolve! WEREGARURUMON!" Both Digimon landed right in front of the giant demon and were ready for fighting.  
"Use you Giga Destroyer, MetalGreymon!"  
"Got it! Giga Destroyer!" He fired off his missiles and WereGarurumon hopped onto one and flew right towards VenomVamdemon before jumping off to avoid the blast.  
"Kaiser Nail!" The attack struck him in the chest… but not a single scratch was made.

"It didn't hurt him at all!" Taichi cried. WereGarurumon then ran up the monster's chest.  
"Engetsu Geri!" That was his Crescent Moon Kick that he used on the demon's forehead which cut a hole in his head but then flesh tentacles came out and grabbed him. MetalGreymon flew up and sliced the tentacles before launching another Giga Destroyer. The attack hit VenomVamdemon in the head and he fell over backwards.  
"Did they get him?" Taichi asked.  
"Food… Food!" VenomVamdemon got back up.  
"Nope, we just made him mad." Ross said.  
"Un…Unbelievable!" I said with shock. I couldn't believe what was going on. Both our Digimon returned back to us.

"Taichi!" MetalGreymon yelled out.  
"Let everyone else at Big Sight know about this!" WereGarurumon ordered. "The two of us will stop him somehow!"  
"Okay! We're counting on you!" I acknowledged.  
"Let's go!" Dad ran back to the van.  
"Ross?" Guilmon was practically begging to be in the fight.  
"Just hang on, you'll get you chance, but we might need you elsewhere at first." The red dinosaur conceded and we quickly drove away.  
"Food! Food!" That was the last thing we heard as fled the scene.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"We've got trouble!" I yelled to the others as we arrived back at Big Sight. We took everyone back outside and even from here we could see VenomVamdemon approaching. "Can't we move everyone to some other place?"  
"We won't make it." Shin begrudgingly admitted. "There are too many people."  
"We have no other choice but to defeat VenomVamdemon." Tailmon said.  
"I'll help you!" Patamon volunteered.  
"We will, too!" "Count me in!" "Me too!" "All right then, me too!" The other Digimon joined in. Tailmon shook her head.  
"All of you stay here. Only Patamon needs to come with me. What you must do is store up energy for your next evolution."

"I hate to admit it, but Tailmon is right." Piyomon agreed. "Let's listen to her, everyone."  
"Why is it that when everyone evolved into Perfect, you turned back into your Adult form while Palmon and the others became Baby-Levels?" Mimi asked.  
"I possess a different level of self-discipline compare to the rest of you. Let's go, Patamon."  
"Yeah!"  
"All right, we're coming too!" I said and we ran back to the van.  
"Koushiro. Let's join them." Koushiro's father said.  
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" "Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!"

The angels flew on ahead while we got into the van. It was Yamato and Ross's dads, myself, Yamato, Takeru, Hikari, Guilmon, Tentomon, Koushiro and his folks. We probably were violating a safety hazard being this overloaded.  
"They transformed into angels this time." Koushiro's mother observed.  
"It's not transformation, it's evolution." Tentomon explained.  
"Angemon. An Adult-Level Angel Digimon. His special attack, Heaven's Knuckle, shines like gold when it is unleashed from his holy fist. Angewomon. A Perfect-Level Angel Digimon. Her special attack, Holy Arrow, releases electricity of herculean strength." Koushiro read off his Digimon Analyzer.  
"What is all of this Adult-Level, Perfect-Level stuff?" Koushiro's father asked.  
"They indicate the evolution level of the Digimon. The lowest level is Baby, and from there they level up sequentially."

We looked ahead and saw the four orange slits on VenomVamdemon's abdomen lit up and shot out four projectiles of energy that both Perfect Digimon dodged but caused massive damage to the two buildings that got hit.  
"Wh-What destructive power!" Yamato's father shouted. VenomVamdemon then swung his fist and struck MetalGreymon!  
"MetalGreymon!" WereGarurumon called out before MetalGreymon flew right towards him and had to stop him from getting really hurt. Both Digimon couldn't hold and devolved back to their Child-Levels.  
"What happened?" I cried.  
"They must have run out of energy!" Koushiro guessed.  
"Die!" VenomVamdemon tried to finish the job by crushing them under his foot.  
"Holy Arrow!" "Heaven's Knuckle!" Both angelic attacks kept him from killing Agumon and Gabumon but they still had little effect.

"Curse you, powers of evil!" Angemon roared.  
"We will destroy you once more!" called out Angewomon. We pulled up to a stop right by our two Digimon.  
"You think you can defeat a king?!" The undead monster boasted.  
"I'm sorry. We're not enough to beat him…" Gabumon apologized.  
"He's too strong." Agumon claimed.  
"Is that beast also a Perfect-Level?" Koushiro's dad asked him.  
"I'll look it up. VenomVamdemon. An Ultimate-Level evolved from Vamdemon. He has lost both his intelligence and sense of reason. Wait, an U-Ultimate Level?!"  
"There's an evolution level that's above Perfect?!" questioned Yamato.  
"We're in trouble!" Ross feared.

"Your attacks don't work against me!" taunted the titanic demon.  
"You can do it, Angemon!" Takeru cheered.  
"Angewomon!" Hikari chimed in.  
"That's it! What does the prophecy say next?" Yamato's dad asked.  
"Let me see, 'Then angels will let fly the arrows of hope and light at the loved ones of those whom they are to protect, and a miracle will happen.' Angels…" Koushiro spoke the last part of the prophecy.  
"Well, I think I found the angels." Phil pointed up towards the two angel Digimon that reflected another one of VenomVamdemon's attacks.  
"Angemon and Angewomon. They're the angels."  
"Then who are the people they protect?" Koushiro's dad inquired.  
"That's easy. Takeru-kun and Hikari. Angels of hope and light, well Takeru possesses the Crest of Hope. And that would mean Hikari's is the Crest of… Light… I don't know if I shouldn't even be surprised by that or see that as a crazy coincidence." Ross pieced more of the puzzle together.

"Keep trying, Angemon!" "You too, Angewomon!" Takeru and Hikari kept encouraging.  
"But who is it that they love the most?" Koushiro wondered.  
"Let's use me as an example." Tentomon spoke up. "If I were the angel, then the person I protect would be Koushiro-han."  
"And the people I love most… Are my Mom and Dad!"  
"And the people that Hikari-han and Takeru-han love most would be…"  
"Their family!" Koushiro's dad figured it out. "Their parents and siblings!"  
"Why would they shoot arrows at the people they love?" questioned Koushiro.  
"Angels… They're angels…" Koushiro's mother explained. "In Roman mythology, Cupid shot arrows at people to fill them with love."  
"Arrows that fill people with love?"  
"That's it, Koushiro-han!" Tentomon shouted.

"Angemon and Angewomon must shoot arrows of love at you two!" What?!  
"Hey, we still haven't fully figured this out yet!"  
"And I think it's gonna be by blood only, so I'm afraid it wouldn't work with me." Ross believed. He was probably right. Hikari loves him just as much as she loves me, but he's only a brother in all but blood.  
"What do you think?" Yamato asked me.  
"That's gotta be it!" I concluded. It was a long shot, but we have no more options. Either this works, or thousands will die in the next hour and then the rest of the city will probably follow after that. "Hikari!"  
"Takeru!"  
"Onii-chan…" Takeru was concerned about what was being asked.  
"Angewomon's arrow of light!" I said.  
"Angemon's arrow of hope!" Yamato added.  
"Get them to shoot at us!"  
"If they do that…!" Hikari feared.  
"You both might die!" Takeru thought the worst case scenario.

"We won't!" Yamato smiled. "Right?"  
"Yeah!" I nodded.  
"You guys know this probably tops the craziest plan we've ever had, right? Eh, well, they are angels and we do go to church, so, I think this will probably work." Ross had a smirk on his face when he spoke those words.  
"Okay…" Hikari determined as both of the pulled out their Crests. "My light!"  
"My hope!" Both their Crests shot out a light that flew to the angels and gave them bows. "Shoot those arrows at our brothers!" Takeru ordered.  
"Believe in miracles!"  
"Let's believe…" Angemon said.  
"In miracles." Angewomon agreed. They turned towards us.

"Yamato, stop this!" "Taichi, don't be reckless!" Gabumon and Agumon tried to talk us out of this.  
"I'm always reckless, remember?" I reminded Agumon.  
"Let us handle this." Yamato assured them. "Are you scared?" He asked me.  
"No way!" Nah, I should be honest. "…but that would be a big fat lie."  
"Actually… so am I." He grabbed my hand. "Hold on tight so I don't run away."  
"That goes the same for me." Our Crests began to glow bright. I heard behind us Angemon and Angewomon getting ready to let loose.  
"Awaken…" "A miracle!" They shouted as they let loose the arrows. I held Yamato's hand tight and waited for the arrow to hit. They did… and I didn't feel any pain at all…

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

The arrows struck Taichi and Yamato and they were soon engulfed in light. Everything became blinding and I couldn't see if it worked or not. But must have with what I heard next.  
"Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" "Gabumon, warp-evolve! METALGARURUMON!" The light suddenly cleared and not only was Taichi and Yamato okay, but now two very powerful Digimon were now staring down VenomVamdemon. WarGreymon was still reptilian in nature but now covered in armor and had a large shield on his back that had the Crest of Courage as its emblem. MetalGarurumon had returned to being a quadruped wolf but was now completely mechanized and armed to the teeth with weapons. That miracle had come through. Now it was a two on one fight with the Undead King.

And the odds were now back in our favor once again…

* * *

And that was Chapter 39 and what a way to end on a cliffhanger! I was losing my mind when five-year old me saw this on TV back in early 2000.

Anyways, that wraps up this chapter, expect the next one soon, I've got a four day weekend with Labor Day, so take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	41. Two Great Ultimate Evolutions!

Chapter 40!

Shout out to **MadDogLucario96** for being this story's biggest fan. You rock, so much man!

Anyways, little to say other than I edited this while listening to the original Medal of Honor soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, let's move on!

* * *

 **Chapter 40: Two Great Ultimate Evolutions! Beat Down the Darkness!**

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 1843 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

That miracle had come through and we had evened the playing field against VenomVamdemon once more. Seeing Agumon and Gabumon reach their Ultimate-Levels was truly awe-inspiring…  
"Hey, Koushiro, want to read those two off to us?" I asked him.  
"WarGreymon. An Ultimate-Level Digimon that warp-evolves from Agumon. Gathering the atmosphere into a ball within his hands, he releases his special attack, Gaia Force, in one blast. MetalGarurumon. An Ultimate-Level Digimon that warp-evolves from Gabumon. His special attack, Cocytus Breath, freezes his enemies solid before he smashes them to pieces!" Koushiro read off the Digimon Analyzer. "Ultimate-Level… They've evolved to the Ultimate-Level!"  
"I feel there's a big gap the rest of us can't jump over now…" Tentomon admitted.  
"Looks like Agumon left me in the dust in terms of evolution…" Guilmon felt a bit jealous. He reached his Perfect-Level right alongside Agumon and now… well, left in the dust as he said.  
"Yeah… you're right…" Yamato muttered.

WarGreymon quickly took off to the skies and surrounded himself in orange ball of energy and rammed right in the Undead King's chest causing him to be pushed back by quite a distance. We jumped back into the van to try to catch up with the fighting. The area was pretty banged up but surprisingly, there was still a lot of structures still standing. Things looked much worse when B-29 Super Fortresses were dropping incendiaries a few decades ago, even if Odaiba didn't exist then.

"Go, WarGreymon!" Taichi yelled out.  
"You're so strong!" Hikari said. Now it was MetalGarurumon's turn for an attack. Multiple panels on his body began to open up revealing a massive arsenal of cryo-weapons. He launched them all and they impacted with VenomVamdemon and completely engulfed him in ice.  
"Wow!" That was all Yamato could say at the power of his Digimon partner. Unfortunately, our celebrations were premature as VenomVamdemon slowly began to shake off the effects of the ice before it all shattered around his body.  
"No way!" MetalGarurumon was surprised by his sheer power.  
"Unbelievable!" WarGreymon added.  
"Now you've done it!" roared VenomVamdemon. If he wasn't mad before, he was now. His eyes suddenly began to glow. "Venom Infuse!" He shot out beams of light and the two Digimon dodged the attacks.

The demon now was just firing all around in a bid to hit something. A building in front of us had been sliced by the beams and was coming down in our way. Yamato's dad quickly pulled on the steering wheel on the van and managed to dodge the rubble… only to cause the van to tip over. We managed to get out as fast as we could but Koushiro's dad had been roughed up by the crash and Dad and Yamato's father had to carry him away from the fighting.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

We could see from the distance that Vamdemon had been pushed back by whatever the others had accomplished but it was still clear that the Demon Digimon was terrifyingly powerful. It was impossible to fully tell what was happening. All that we could see was that he was now firing a bunch of beams of light from his eyes, most assuredly trying to get the others with them.

"Shin-niisan!" Jou acknowledged his brother who walked back up to us after going back inside to check on how everyone inside Big Sight was faring. "How are the adults doing?"  
"They haven't shown any change." We all sighed at that news.  
"We'll have to beat Vamdemon if we want them to turn back to normal!" Gomamon assumed.  
"He did that to my Papa and Mama…" Mimi muttered with a hint of anger in her voice. "I want to beat Vamdemon!" Now, she had an angry and determined look on her face.  
"Mimi! I can still fight!" informed Palmon.  
"Palmon!"  
"Sora!" Piyomon rubbed up affectionately against my leg like she usually would. She was basically trying to say that she wanted to fight as well.  
"Okay!" I nodded.

"You guys…" Jou was surprised at this wave of courage we were showing. He looked down to Gomamon and said nothing for a moment before the little Seal Digimon jumped on him and climbed up onto his head.

"'Let's go, Gomamon!' Why am I not hearing you say those words?" He questioned. Jou nervously laughed at that. Jou and Gomamon were quite the pair, in terms of being so opposite in personality and yet, worked together so well. Jou seemed to muster up some courage and threw his fists up.  
"All right! Let's go, Gomamon!"  
"You got it!" The two of them charged head on foot. I turned and ran up to Shin.  
"Please… Please take care of my mother!" I begged before I honorably bowed and ran off to join Jou.  
"My Papa and Mama, too!" Mimi also requested before she tagged along as well.  
"Don't do anything rash." I heard Shin mutter before he was out of earshot.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

VenomVamdemon was just laughing maniacally as he just kept blasting everything around us in a bid to kill us. The situation got so bad that we ended up getting separated from each other thanks to all the smoke and debris that was thrown up.  
"Hikari!" I heard Taichi yell out from somewhere in the smoke. I looked up to see WarGreymon was making a flying charge towards the demon but he was swatted away towards the ground.  
"Onii-chan!" Hikari shouted out. Again, with the smoke, it was impossible to tell where everyone was. Angewomon looked back towards the ground, trying to find Hikari in the mess but due to her split second distraction, a giant bolder VenomVamdemon threw collided with her and crushed her against the rubble.

"Takeru!" I tried to see if I could spot Takeru in this mess. If I couldn't see him, at least I'd feel slightly better if he at least he responds back to me. MetalGarurumon flew away from the deadly beams of light and turned to launch another payload of ice missiles which froze the Undead King but still didn't stop him.  
"Onii-chan!" I heard Takeru's voice in the chaos. Well, at least he's still alive. Of course, his Digimon wasn't doing too well. Angemon tried to get the drop on VenomVamdemon but he was swatted into a building that I think our parents were at.  
"Dad! Mom!" "Dad!" Koushiro and Ross were together and were running towards their parents.  
"The others are here!" Tentomon pointed out.  
"Vamdemon! We'll take you on!" Togemon shouted.  
"I'll join you!"  
"I'm getting in this fight, too!" Guilmon ran forward with Tentomon.

"Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!"  
"All right! Everyone, attack at the same time!" WarGreymon ordered his fellow Digimon.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" "Meteor Wing" "Exhaust Flame!" "Mega Blaster!" "Heaven's Knuckle!" "Holy Arrow!" "Freeze Bomber!" All the attacks hit VenomVamdemon right in the abdomen and he roared in pain. WarGreymon flew up and began spinning until he was nothing but a blur.  
"Brave Tornado!" He tore a hole right through the demon's body and he fell to his knees. We got him!  
"Did they get him?" Dad asked.  
"I think so; that should be fatal, even for him." Ross's dad claimed. After a few moments of silence, VenomVamdemon roared once more before he got back up! Come on, what it is going to take?! He started to make some strange noises before a face showed up in his abdomen where the attack landed. Mimi screamed out in disgust.  
"Wh-What is that?!" Taichi questioned.

The face opened his mouth and screeched before a black wave of energy shot out of his mouth and covered the battlefield that blew our Digimon away.  
"WarGreymon!"  
"I will devour all of you!" VenomVamdemon yelled. This is just unbelievable, we've tried almost everything and nothing works. We've got WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. We've all launched a multitude of attacks. What exactly do we need to do in order to win and save everyone?

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Just when we were at our lowest point, when it looked like we would fail, somehow, something always comes through for us. Our Crests all suddenly began to glow.  
"What's this?" I questioned. We all pulled out our Crests and suddenly, bright beams of light shot upward and soon began to wrap themselves around VenomVamdemon and it appeared that they were actually restraining him.  
"Release me, you filthy Chosen Children!" The vile abdomen face screamed out.  
"It talked! I get it! That monster must be VenomVamdemon's actual form!" The smaller monster is wearing the bigger one like a skin suit; that explains why we were unable to really stop that giant monstrosity. Well, now he's exposed his weakness, it's time to finish this! "WarGreymon!"  
"Gotcha!" He seemed to figure it out as well.

"WarGreymon!" MetalGarurumon knocked over the observation dome from the destroyed TV building like it was a soccer ball.  
"Nice pass!" Sora shouted. WarGreymon lined up for the kick like an ace striker.  
"SHOOT!" We all yelled. He kicked the dome hard and smashed right into the face of the true Vamdemon.  
"Gaia Force!" WarGreymon gathered a giant ball of orange energy in his hands and threw it right towards the face.  
"Cocytus Breath!" MetalGarurumon's mouth shot out a large beam of blue energy and both attacks struck right on the money. VenomVamdemon screamed in absolute pain before he began to split into pieces and disintegrate.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Shin witnessed the destruction of VenomVamdemon in the distance and could only smile in how relived he was that it was all over. He was also bursting with pride for his younger brother about what he and his friends had just accomplished. Things that a few days prior, he would've laughed at. He quickly ran back into Big Sight and saw a wonderful sight. People were waking up from their sinister sleep; loved ones were reuniting with each other and it seemed that everything was returning to normal.  
"Huh? What happened?" Keisuke wondered.  
"All right, Jou!" Shin couldn't help but cheer.

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 3rd, 1999. 1904 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Taichi!" Koromon yelled as he hopped forward into Taichi's arms.  
"You did it, Koromon!" Taichi cheered.  
"Yeah!"  
"Great job, Tsunomon!" Yamato gave his thanks as well.  
"Huh? Who are you?" Mimi noticed a dog with a strange collar that appeared near us. I could probably take a wild guess on who this was.  
"I'm Plotmon. Nice to meet you."  
"Plotmon. A Child Digimon with long, floppy ears. She is the degenerated form of Tailmon. Her special attack is Puppy Howling." Koushiro explained with his Digimon Analyzer. Yep, that's who I thought it was.  
"Tailmon must be in her Child form now because she used up all of her energy helping Agumon and Gabumon evolve into their Ultimate-Levels." Man, Hikari catches onto all of this quick. Then again, Taichi and I did give her quite the crash course about Digimon and the Digital World.

"Hey, look!" Sora pointed up to the fog dome. "The sky is clearing!" We were all smiling, happy to see that we finally succeeded… only for our moods to drop once more at the sight we were seeing now. The girls gasped upon the sight above.  
"No way!" Takeru cried out.  
"Th-This can't be…!" Jou muttered.  
"You've gotta be kidding me!" I yelled. We were all staring into the night sky and seeing striped bands of land above. Mountains, fields, grasslands, it's as if a mirror of another land was being show in the sky. We could see the night sky between the bands, but we just couldn't understand what that land was doing there.  
"Onii-chan, Ross-chan, I'm scared!" Hikari quickly embraced Taichi for protection.  
"Wha… What is this…?" questioned Taichi.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back at Big Sight, the reactions were much of the same in terms of the continents in the sky.  
"Is that a mirage?" Susumu wondered.  
"No, they're most likely real." Shin answered as he hopped back onto his moped.  
"Um, do you happen to know where our children are?" Yuuko asked. "Where are Taichi and Hikari?"  
"And Phil and Ross?" Susumu added.  
"They're all at the Fuji TV station." The med student answered. "I'll go check out the situation, so you guys handle the rest!" He drove away after that. At the same time, the water buses were now working and Natsuko was on one of them, hopeful to find Takeru safe and sound in Odaiba. It wasn't just Odaiba and Tokyo that was witnessing the land in the sky. It was all over the world. Nations were unable to make heads or tails of any of it. It wasn't being picked up on any radar and any pictures from satellites showed nothing out of the ordinary.

The water bus finally came to a stop and Natsuko quickly hopped off and ran towards the epicenter of the fight.  
"Takeru! Takeru!" She yelled out.  
"It's Mama!" Takeru informed.  
"Takeru!" She quickly ran over to him and hugged him. "Thank goodness you're safe! I was so worried!" Yamato was just staring at her while Hiroaki just pulled out a cigarette. "Were you scared, Takeru?"  
"No, I was with Onii-chan." She looked over his shoulder to see her other son.  
"Yamato."  
"Mom…" He wasn't really one to show his emotions, especially after not seeing his mother for quite some time. Takeru grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards Yamato and Hiroaki.

"Yamato… You've grown taller again." She smiled.  
"Yeah, a little."  
"You look good. That's great."  
"Natsuko…" Hiroaki finally spoke up. "It's been a while."  
"Yes it has…"  
"It's been a long time since the entire family got together, isn't it, Onii-chan?" Takeru happily asked.  
"Yeah, I guess so."

Over the Pacific, the United States was very concerned with the sudden appearance of the land in the sky and was sending recon planes up to try to discover what was going on. One of these was a weather reconnaissance plane, a WC-130H Hercules, that was to investigate with its radar equipment.  
"Come in, Hickam AFB. This is Omega Three; we're on final approach with the target."  
"Roger, Omega Three. Try to find out what that thing is." Omega Three flew right up and when it made contact with the strands, the whole plane suddenly turned grey as if it had been petrified and suddenly was falling back towards the sea of the coast of Oahu.  
"Mayday, mayday! This is Omega Three! We've lost all instruments! We're going down! Ejecting!" All five crew members were able to eject in time and would soon be picked up, but it proved that touching the sky would be devastating for any aircraft.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

All we could really do was sit around and do nothing as we had no answers or real idea with what was going on.  
"I hope my Mama and Papa are all right…" Mimi worried.  
"I'm sure they are." assured Sora. We soon heard the sound of a bike horn and looked to see a light coming down the road from Big Sight.  
"Someone's coming." observed Palmon.  
"That's…! Shin-niisan!" Jou cried as his brother pulled up right next to us.  
"All of your families back at Big Sight are safe! They're all back to normal!" He informed to our relief.  
"All right!" Hikari cheered.  
"Thank God!" I sighed.  
"Isn't that great, Sora-san?" Mimi asked. Sora had to wipe a tear.  
"Yeah!"

Shin soon pulled out a Sony Watchman FD-285 portable TV and got it set up so we could hear and see what was on the news.  
"Those continents up there are not an illusion! They really exist!" An emergency broadcaster said as we begun to gather around. "No one knows what could have happened to cause this! But all of us are wondering if those spooky continents that no one has ever seen before, will permanently take the place of our blue skies all throughout the world!" Wait, did he say throughout the world?

"Wh-What in the world is going on?" Jou questioned.  
"Is this a part of Vamdemon's plot, too?" Yamato wondered.  
"That can't be!" Tsunomon was quick to dismiss. "We made sure Vamdemon died this time!"  
"Yeah, no doubt about that!" added Koromon.  
"Then what are they?" Taichi wanted an answer.  
"Hey, what's going to happen to us?" Takeru was concerned.  
"Generally speaking, we've got to find the cause behind this first." Jou suggested.  
" _That mountain… It looks exactly like Infinity Mountain! But that can't be…"_ Koushiro thought.

"Taichi-san!" alerted Koushiro. "Could you use your mini-telescope to look over there?" He pointed up to the sky. Taichi acknowledged and pulled out the telescope.  
"Where?"  
"Look, that mountain over there."  
"Which one? There are so many mountains, I can't tell which one you're pointing at!"  
"That one! Look!"  
"Just saying 'that one' isn't much help… Where is it? Ahh!"  
"What's the matter?"  
"A plane! There's an airplane up there!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Control tower, please respond, over! Control tower! This is JAL Flight Eight Five Four, needing immediately clearance to land!" The plane's pilot yelled over the radio. "Damn it, what's going on?"  
"Sir, we have to make an emergency landing!" The co-pilot informed him. "There's hardly any fuel left in the tank!"  
"I know that! If only we had someone to guide us down the runway…"  
"Our prospects aren't looking so good! With these circumstances, we should land at the American base and…" More warning lights lit up the cockpit.  
"Wh-What's happening?!"  
"The fuel gauge has run out, we can't operate the plane anymore! At this rate, we'll crash!"  
"This can't be!" The plane suddenly began to take a dive.  
"The plane is falling!" Taichi observed. "It's gonna crash!"  
"Piyomon!" Sora said. The bird immediately knew what she was needed to do.

"We have to make it… somewhere…" The pilot muttered as he tried his hardest to keep the plane level. Birdramon soon was in the sky and flying towards the plane in an attempt to save the flight. However, as she got closer, she noticed something was following the plane. To her shock, the thing following was an all too familiar red beetle Digimon. Kuwagamon flew right by the left wing of the plane and petrified the wing causing the whole plane to begin spinning downward. Birdramon quickly place herself below the plane to keep it stable but it was proving too heavy for her.  
"Birdramon!" Jou yelled out from the ground.  
"You can do it, Birdramon!" Sora cried out.  
"Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!" With more strength in her Perfect form than her Adult form, she was finding it much easier to keep the plane up, at least in order to bring it down safely.

Kabuterimon was also flying towards her in an attempt to give some extra help.  
"I'll help y- whoa!" He quickly ducked out of the way of Kuwagamon who shot right past him. "Take this!" He shot a Mega Blaster at the bug but the attack seemed to have just went right through the infamous beetle. "What?" Kabuterimon was surprised by what happened.  
"Stay back, Kabuterimon!" Garudamon warned. "Don't touch him!" Kabuterimon dodge Kuwagamon again and the bug just simply flew away. After evolving into AtlurKabuterimon, the two of them quickly put the plane back on the water right by the docks and flew away, saving all those aboard. One such passenger was a kindergartener who had just attended the funeral of his police officer father who died in London preventing an assassination attempt.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Hey, was that Kuwagamon?" Taichi asked Pyocomon and Mochimon after they had landed.  
"He flew here from those continents!" Pyocomon told us.  
"I knew it." Koushiro spoke up.  
"What do you mean?" Taichi questioned.  
"That place up there is the Digimon world!"  
"Eh!?" We all were shocked at the discovery, though maybe we shouldn't have been that surprised.  
"What?"  
"That's the Digimon world!?" Yamato was dumbstruck.  
"Now that you mention it, it does look kind of familiar." Mimi said.

"Hey! Take a look at this!" Shin called us over to him.  
"Please take a look!" The broadcaster said on the portable TV screen. "These images are not special effects!" We were seeing Digimon in multiple cities around the world.  
"A gorilla Digimon attacking New York? Talk about life imitating art." I muttered.  
"That dragon looking Digimon is flying right over the Kremlin." Jou pointed out.  
"Tyranomon is destroying the Arc de Triomphe in Paris!" Takeru shouted.  
"Looks like Kuwagamon flew to the airport, and is sabotaging those planes." Sora observed.

"We can't touch those Digimon." Pyocomon explained. "If we do, we'll solidify like that airplane wing!"  
"My Mega Blaster went right through him, too!" Mochimon informed.  
"What the hell is going on, damn it!" Taichi was really starting to get upset.  
"Is that where you live, Plotmon?" Hikari looked up at the sky.  
"No, that's no longer the Digimon world we know." She said.  
"That's right." Koushiro theorized. "It's been several days since we've come here… Which means several years must have passed in the Digimon world.  
"We came here without fixing the distortions in the Digimon world, so it must be in pretty bad shape right now." Koromon believed.  
"And that must have ended up affecting our world, as well." Sora concluded. Damn Vamdemon, he was nothing more than a distraction, and now the whole world is suffering because of it.

"Let's go!" Taichi stepped forward. "Back to the Digimon world!"  
"But how?" Mimi asked.  
"When we first went to the Digimon world, our Digivices led us there." recalled Jou.  
"Then that should work again this time!" I determined.  
"It's worth a try." shrugged Koushiro.  
"All right. Gather all of your Digivices, everyone." Taichi ordered. We all followed through and got in a circle and held out our Digivices, hopeful that we could be sent back to the Digital World and fix whatever problems are left. "Please! Take us back to the Digimon world again!" Our Digivices began to glow before shining a bright rainbow of light towards the damaged sky.  
"This path of light will transport us to the Digimon world!" Jou believed.  
"Yeah." Taichi nodded. "I'm sure we'll get there safely!"  
"With our Digivices guiding us." Sora added.  
"So, who's up for one more Tour of Duty?" I asked.  
"Not like we have much of a choice, now do we?" Yamato pointed out.

"Takeru!" Takeru's mom yelled out.  
"I'm sorry we have to leave just when all of us are together again, Mama. But we'll be back soon!"  
"You can't!"  
"Let him go." Yamato's father spoke up. "We've made a few selfish decisions of our own, remember?" Takeru's mother had tears in her eyes.  
"If we don't do something, Earth will be doomed!" Yamato told her the stakes. "That's why I'll… We'll protect you and everyone else, Mom!"  
"Yamato…" The tears began to fall from her eyes.

"Your mother always did say you were destined for great things, Ross… I just don't know if this is what she meant. You be careful, and watch out for Taichi and Hikari as well." Dad said.  
"Don't worry, Dad. We'll get this done, and then we won't have to be separated anymore." I smiled.  
"We're counting on you, guys!" Shin informed us. "We thought it was normal for morning to come after every nightfall, but we may never see the dawn again this time."  
"Don't say such morbid things!" Koushiro's mother snapped at the med student. "I believe in these children!"  
"No, I mean, I do, too!" He tried to defend.  
"I'll be fine, Nii-san. We'll make darned sure that the sun _does_ come up!" Jou proudly declared, very much against the kind of person we know him as.  
"Looking good, Jou-senpai!" "It doesn't suit you at all!" Sora and Mimi teased to his embarrassment, causing the rest of us to laugh.

Jou suddenly made a surprised noise as he suddenly began to float up, just like Taichi and I did when we had to say goodbye to Hikari the first time we came home. At least this time she gets her wish and doesn't have to leave us; in fact, she comes with us this time.  
"Jou-senpai!" Sora was surprised. The rest of us followed suit and jumped into the light and were beginning to be lifted up as well.  
"Well, we're going!" Taichi said.  
"Takeru! Yamato!" Their mother shouted out. We all did our waves to everyone and our folks nearby did the same.  
"Sora!" A female voice called out.  
"Mom… Mom!" Sora called back.  
"Papa! Mama!" "Dad!" "Mom!" Mimi, Taichi, and Hikari also said their tearful goodbyes.  
"Taichi! Hikari! Ross!" Yuuko yelled.  
"Don't worry! We'll definitely be back!" Hikari promised as we got higher and higher, and our families were shrinking in our view.  
"We're off!" We all shouted before we were all consumed by a bright light.

So, our objective is to return to the Digimon world, fight whoever is our enemy, fix the distortions, and save both worlds. We're the height of power, at full strength now. This should be a walk in the park.

But knowing our luck, it's gonna probably be a hellish slog before we can truly return home once and for all…

* * *

And that was the end of the Vamdemon arc, probably everyone's favorite part of the show, not saying the rest isn't strong of course, but you get the idea.

Anyways, take care everyone, next time, the kids are going to receive one hell of a welcoming committee.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	42. The Dark Masters!

Chapter 41! And we're back in the Digital World!

Shoutout to **draco1221** for the fav and **MadDogLucario96** for another review.

Sorry I got a little held up but I was watching a playthrough of Medal of Honor: Frontline... my childhood right there, that was the reason I got real interested in history, especially the Second World War.

Also sorry for how short the chapter is this time, but this was kinda of a recap episode, as if you had forgotten what each stage of the Digimon was. It wasn't bad, but the evolutions kinda chewed up some screen time.

So after editing this chapter whilst listing to the haunting original soundtrack for Frontline, here's the next chapter... things are really gonna be a slap in the face for the kids.

* * *

 **Chapter 41: The Four Devine Generals of the Devil's Mountain! The Dark Masters!**

 _Digital World. R-Day (Return Day). Time Unknown.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Inside a mysterious fortress, a being was observing the nervous and fearful looks of humanity as they looked towards the sky on a video monitor. The being could only laugh at the fear that was being shown.  
"Those fools wear masks of fear as they wait eternally in vain for peace and order to return." The voice was a human like Digimon that looked like a jester. The other thing about him was the four swords that he carried on his back. He was observing humanity through a telescope that could view across worlds. "It is a wonderful sight. Truly wonderful."

A pool of water next to him burst as a metal sea serpent burst from the water.  
"I don't agree to these pathetic methods! We should kill them all in one blast!" The serpent claimed. A wooded puppet with a puppeteer cross on his back dropped in on the throne room.  
"Their flow of time is different from ours. We should use it to pick them off slowly one by one." The puppet had the voice of a child but he was anything but innocent. "Like him." He pointed over to a mechanized dinosaur with two titanic cannons on his back. The dinosaur only growled.  
"The Chosen Children will be returning soon." The jester informed. "Our time of boredom is over. Now, let us leave the dressing room! The stage curtains are rising!" As if in cue, the spot lights shined on the four Digimon. "The title is, _'The End of the Chosen Children!'_ " He declared.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Ugh, we have got to find a way to cross to the other side that doesn't involve ourselves getting knocked out. I slowly came back to reality and saw the others all gathered near me.  
"Are we back?" Taichi asked.  
"I think so…" Mimi guessed.  
"We should be." Koushiro said.  
"Is it night time?" Takeru questioned. That's right… it is quite dark.  
"Looks that way." Yamato answered. Sora suddenly gasped.  
"Guys, look up there!" We looked up to the sky and saw a very familiar landmass in the sky.  
"H-Hokkaido?!" Taichi stuttered. It sure looked exactly like the North Island of Japan.  
"Is that Earth?" Yamato wondered.  
"No doubt about it." I told him.  
"We're able to see Earth from here." Koushiro explained. "Just like how we could see the Digimon world on Earth earlier!" We quickly heard the sound of leaves rustling nearby us, more specifically, right by Jou.  
"Gomamon?" He guessed as he walked to a tall pile of grass. "What are you doing down there, Gomamon?" Gomamon popped his head out of Jou's duffle bag, indicating he was not in the grass.  
"Jou! I'm over here!"  
"Eh? Then who's this?" His answer came in the form of a small purple mouse that jumped out, hit him in the face then scurried away.

The ground suddenly gave away right by him and caused him to fall and hang on off the edge of the crevasse.  
"Jou!" Gomamon yelled as he and the rest of the Digimon ran towards him, except Palmon and Guilmon who somehow tripped over each other.  
"Koromon, evolve! AGUMON!" "Tsunomon, evolve! GABUMON!" "Mochimon, evolve! TENTOMON!" "Tokomon, evolve! PATAMON!" "Pyocomon, evolve! PIYOMON!"  
"Wait!" Hikari stopped them. She ran past the Digimon before heading over to the bush where the purple mouse was. "Don't be scared." She said in a calm and soothing voice in order to assure the mouse not to be afraid of her. "There's nothing to be scared of." No answer. "I won't hurt you, so come out." The small mouse took her words to be truthful and walked forward before he collapsed.  
"It's Chuumon!" Palmon informed us.  
"You're right! He's the Chuumon we saw on File Island!" Mimi recalled.  
"Mimi-chan? Palmon?" The mouse muttered. "Thank goodness… You came back…" He closed his eyes once again. Clearly he was exhausted and on his last legs.

"Hey, someone help me!" Jou yelled out, still hanging on for his life.  
"Oh no, I almost forgot!" Gomamon turned his attention back to his human partner.  
"Gomamon, lend me your hand! I can't climb back up on my own!"  
"When you say lend a 'hand'…" He looked at his paws. Taichi, myself and Yamato quickly ran over to Jou.  
"This is…" Taichi stuttered as we saw the vast abyss in front of us. "J-Jou, climb up, quick!" Jou looked down and screamed before he tried to pull himself up.  
"Help me!" He shouted.  
"Grab on!" "Pull him up!" "Come on, hurry up!" The three of us helped get him back on stable ground.  
"Wh-What's with this place?" Yamato questioned. More of the landscape was just crumbling and falling into the black abyss below.  
"This whole place is going to Hell, that's what's with it." I told him.

"Have you found Gennai-han?" Tentomon asked Koushiro who worked on his computer.  
"I'm not able to get through to him yet."  
"He looks more relieved after seeing your face, Mimi." Palmon referred back to Chuumon who was lying in Mimi's lap.  
"He must have been supporting himself purely on adrenaline." Piyomon guessed.  
"How sad." Sora felt for the little guy. He woke back up but we could see in his eyes that he had experience pain and suffering.

"Chuumon." said Mimi.  
"Mimi-chan… It's really you!"  
"Yes. What happened to you?" He closed his eyes as he looked like he was on the verge of crying.  
"Where's your buddy Sukamon?" Palmon asked.  
"He's… dead." His tears began to flow. "After you guys left File Island, we continued spending our days together peacefully as usual… Then one day, just out of nowhere… The island began to rumble and the ground opened up and he fell to his death in the abyss. The powers of darkness enveloped the world. And then, to make it easier for them to continue ruling in darkness… They reshaped the entire world."  
"Reshaped the world?" Taichi questioned.  
"How?" Koushiro inquired.  
"Some places here and there are ruins of what they had once been, but most of it has been twisted up into that mountain." We all looked up and saw that in fact the landmasses and the ocean were being pulled into the sky and spiraling upwards to the heavens. On top of the spiral was this dark object I really couldn't make out from here.

"It's called 'Spiral Mountain.'" Chuumon informed.  
"Spiral Mountain, is it?" Yamato was dumbfounded like the rest of us.  
"I can't believe the Digimon world has changed so much…" Jou spoke up.  
"What happened to the other Digimon?" Taichi asked. "Like Leomon."  
"I don't know." Chuumon admitted. "But I've heard that anyone who goes against them is defeated!"  
"Against who?" questioned Sora.  
"The…Dark Masters."  
"The Dark Masters?" I inquired.  
"Sounds like those Dark Masters must be the ones we have to fight." Taichi determined. That sounds about right.  
"Fight?!" Chuumon suddenly yelled. "No way, you'll never be able to beat them!"  
"We defeated Vamdemon, you know!"  
"It'll be okay! As long as all nine of the Chosen Children are together, we can save the world!" Mimi assured the mouse about our chances.

Our conversation was interrupted as we heard the sounds of maniacal laughing filling the air.  
"Chosen Children! I've been waiting for you!" The ground exploded near us and out of a pool of water jumped out a large armor plated sea serpent similar to Seadramon.  
"I-It's MetalSeadramon!" Chuumon screamed. MetalSeadramon began to sail through the air while we all began to run away from him. He slammed the ground right by us causing all of us to tumble across the forest floor.  
"How is it he can move so quickly with that huge body of his?!" Yamato questioned. MetalSeadramon just laughed from above.

"Let's go, Agumon!" Taichi ordered while his Digivice glowed.  
"You got it! Agumon, evolve! GREYMON!"  
"Gabumon!" "Up and at 'em, Guilmon!" "I'm counting on you, Piyomon!" "Go for it, Tentomon!" "Get going, Gomamon!" "Be careful, Palmon!" "Let's do this, Patamon!" "You can do it, Plotmon!" The rest of us got our Digimon ready for the fight as well.  
"Gabumon, evolve! GARURUMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" "Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAUKMON!" "Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" "Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" "Plotmon, evolve! TAILMON!"  
"Mega Flame!" Greymon's attack hit MetalSeadramon in the face but it had no effect and he was merely knocked aside.  
"Meteor Wing!" "Fox Fire!" "Exhaust Flame!" The three attacking Digimon had the same result as they were swatted away as well.  
"Mega Blaster!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" "Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" Just like the others, no effect. Angemon was also knocked away and Tailmon nearly got eaten but she managed to jump aside just in the nick of time.  
"Angemon!" "Tailmon…" Both our youngest members were stricken with fear and worry when they saw their Digimon harmed.

"As if you can win against me." The serpent circled above and laughed.  
"Why? It's nine against one!" Mimi was shocked that we were getting so soundly trashed. I had an idea and it was a bad one.  
"MetalSeadramon is an Ultimate-Level Digimon!" Koushiro read off the Analyzer. That's what I thought. "Adult-Levels can't win against him, no matter how many there are!"  
"He's an Ultimate-Level?!" Taichi shouted.  
"Why does our first opponent have to be a powerful one?" Jou said kind of a dumb question.  
"They're evil, Jou-san! They aren't going to play fair or give us a break!" I told him.  
"You're finished! Ultimate Stream!" The cannon on MetalSeadramon's nose began to glow and carved a beam right towards us. Everything went bright and I felt myself falling with Growmon trying to catch me and I assumed the others were going through the same thing.

By the time I felt myself on solid ground once more, I was feeling pretty banged up. I could hear the others moaning and groaning in pain as well. I could barely see anything, it was so foggy.  
"Takeru, are you hurt?" I heard Angemon ask the young blonde.  
"I'm okay. Thanks, Angemon." Suddenly, the sound of something dark rumbled through the air. "What's wrong?" Takeru asked as the angel got up, and looked ready for another fight.  
"There's something out there. I'll go take a look." He flew up by was struck by two giant orbs of energy.  
"Angemon!" He flew back down into Takeru's arms as he devolved back to Patamon. "Patamon! Patamon, hang in there!" He begged as Taichi and Yamato ran up to him. The attacker marched out of the mist and it looks like we found the Digimon equivalent to a AT-AT. The giant mechanized Dinosaur had two titanic cannons on its back that's caliber would probably put the IJN Yamato and Musashi super battleships to shame. All the beast did was roar at us as Koushiro pulled out his laptop again.

"He's another Ultimate-Level Digimon! Mugendramon! He wields unbelievable power and his special attack is Mugen Cannon!" The word Mugen was Japanese for infinity. We didn't really need to be told twice about what to do next, our Digimon went right to work evolving once more.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Garurumon, super-evolve! WEREGARURUMON!" "Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" "Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!" "Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!" "Togemon, super-evolve! LILIMON!" "Ikkakumon, super-evolve! ZUDOMON!" "Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!"  
"Go get him! Beat him to a pulp!" Taichi yelled out to the eight Perfects.  
"But we can't win." Hikari muttered to both myself and Taichi's surprise. Call me a pessimist or a realist but I was pretty sure we weren't going to stand a chance against that monster, and I think Hikari figured that out as well.  
"Mugen Cannon!" Mugendramon roared as the Perfects charged straight ahead. His cannons opened fire and struck all of our Digimon, stopping the attack right in its tracks.  
"Angewomon!" cried Hikari. She actually tried to catch her but the angel was much too heavy for her. Those Mugen Cannons kept firing causing the ground to crumble underneath us again and sent us falling into another abyss.

We fell for what felt like a few minutes before we finally came to a stop in midair. Our surroundings were like some sort of star field or something similar.  
"We stopped." Koushiro realized.  
"Where are we? What's going on?" Mimi asked. Out of nowhere, WereGarurumon and Garudamon started punching each other.  
"What are you doing, WereGarurumon?" "Stop, Garudamon! You're both friends!" Yamato and Sora shouted.  
"I'm not doing this on purpose!" Garudamon defended.  
"My body… It's moving by itself!" claimed WereGarurumon.  
"By itself?" Sora questioned before she made a strange pose. The rest of us began to follow suit, the feeling of someone tugging on your body and unable to regain control.  
"Wh-What's going on?" Jou yelled out as he hung of Zudomon's horn.

"There are strings attached to us! We're being controlled!" Koushiro informed. A closer look at my own hand and I suddenly saw the strings as well. Someone was controlling us like we were puppets. We then heard what sounded like a child laughing, but the laughter was much more sinister in nature.  
"You finally figured it out." We looked up to see a wooden puppet above us with a large mallet in his hand and puppeteer cross on his back. No doubt about it, this was a controller.  
"Who are you?"  
"Why don't you use your special little computer to find out? Here." He lifted his hand and controlled Koushiro's movements on the computer.  
"He's also an Ultimate-Level! Pinochimon! His special attack is Bullet Hammer!"  
"Why do these Ultimate-Level Digimon keep appearing one after the other?" Mimi angrily questioned.  
"Mimi…" Lilimon muttered to the Stenson wearing girl.  
"Now… Fly to the last stage!" Pinochimon said. All us children were thrown away from our Digimon. "You guys can join them. Bullet Hammer!" The hammer part of his weapon looked more like the cylinder to a revolver, complete with six holes that fired out a rapid stream of energy bolts that devolved all of our Digimon back to their much weaker levels. We all fell deeper into the abyss once again.

Gah! In pain once again! Our hard landing dropped us into a coliseum of some sorts. Somewhat like the one where Greymon suffered his Dark Evolution, but much smaller. From behind one of the pillars, a clown rolled in while balancing on a large red ball. Great, I hate clowns.  
"Hello, good children! Let me tell you all a funny story today." The clown began. He pulled out a crudely-drawn crayon drawing of us. "A long, long time ago, there were nine Chosen Children and their Digimon." He pulled the picture to show another one of us climbing up Spiral Mountain. "Those nine children and Digimon were stupid enough to climb up Spiral Mountain, where they were killed by the Dark Masters." The last picture he showed was all of us falling to our doom I assumed. "The end." My opinion of that story is the same Captain Blackadder had about Baldrick's war poems, and I wasn't the only one.

"What was that" Takeru booed. "That wasn't funny at all!"  
"I just told you what sort of destiny awaits you. You should be grateful." The clown suddenly began to vanish, only for his place to be replaced by a jester armed with four large swords. He then flew up and stood upon one of the pillars.  
"It's Piemon!" screamed Chuumon. "He's an Ultimate-Level Digimon who appears in unexpected places at unexpected times! His attack is the devastating Trump Sword!"  
"There's no way we'll lose to you guys!" Taichi declared.  
"Agumon!" "Gabumon, I'm counting on you!" Taichi and Yamato said with their Crests out to their Digimon who were the only ones in our group who could truly combat an Ultimate-Level Digimon.  
"Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" "Gabumon, warp-evolve! METALGARURUMON!"  
"Go, WarGreymon! Show him what we're made of!" "MetalGarurumon! Take him down and we save the world!" Both boys ordered their Digimon forward.

"Gaia Force!" WarGreymon threw his massive attack but Piemon merely hopped out of the way.  
"Cocytus Breath!" The icy attack flew forward but Piemon pulled out one of his swords and sliced it in mid-air. He then pulled out his three remaining swords.  
"Trump Sword!" Both Digimon were quickly impaled by the swords and fell back to the ground in Child-Level forms.  
"N-No way!" Jou panicked.  
"This is very bad!" I worried.  
"We can't win even with two Ultimate Levels on our side?" questioned Sora.  
"He's also an Ultimate, isn't he?" Mimi asked.  
"Even if we are at the same level, you have only recently gained your new powers." Piemon explained. "You are greatly mistaken if you think that is all it will take to win." Of course, just like when Leomon and Growmon fought back at the Village of Beginnings, I was worried that Leomon had a considerably advantage thanks to his experience and I was right. The same rings true now as well.  
"I'm sorry, Taichi." Agumon apologized.

"Permit me now to introduce the members that make up the Dark Masters." Piemon motioned his arms as if he was on the stage introducing the cast. "MetalSeadramon!" The serpent burst from the ground and began to hover in the air. "Mugendramon!" The mechanized walker smashed through the building's walls before coming to a stop. "Pinochimon!" He appeared right above the jester upside-down.  
"Personally, I wish I could have had a little more fun with you." He had a hint of disappointment in his voice, but that was mostly still masked by his sinister intentions.  
"And myself, Piemon. Time flies in the blink of an eye when you're having fun. Now then… Which one of you would like to die first?" All of us were frozen in the spot with fear.

"No…" Mimi muttered as tears began to form in her eyes. "No…! I'm just an ordinary grade schooler! Why do I have to die here?"  
"Mimi-chan…" Sora tried to say something but Mimi was just letting it all out. Mimi was doing better about not crying as much and being less selfish and more sincere lately, but we can't hardly blame her when staring death in the face, she regress back to her old ways.  
"I wanted to dress up in fashionable clothes, and eat more yummy things, and then maybe go on a trip abroad, and then…"  
"Your whining is hurting my ears a bit." moaned Piemon "I think I'll start with you." Mimi stopped crying when she heard that. Piemon pulled a knife out of sleeve and quickly threw it towards Mimi!  
"No!" I shouted. However, Mimi's life was spared… at the cost of Chuumon's who jumped out of her arms and fatally took the knife straight to his chest.

Mimi walked forward a step before falling to her knees and picking up the heroic mouse.  
"Chuumon, no, hang in there!" She begged.  
"Mimi-chan…" He muttered with his last breaths. "When I'm reborn… go on a date with me…" The little mouse closed his eyes for the last time before disintegrated into data in her arms.  
"Chuumon!"  
"What a stupid Digimon." Piemon insulted Chuumon's sacrifice. "There's no need to cover for others when you will all end up dying anyway."  
"Damn it… We'll never let you get away with this!" Taichi yelled. The Dark Masters just laughed.  
"Well, who's next?" Our situation was not good. We're completely outmatched and our power has basically been drained. Lord Almighty, if you're out there, some help would be nice.

"Pit Bomb!" I know that attack! The bomb exploded right in front of the Dark Masters and blinded all of us. I don't know if that was just luck or some Devine Intervention, but the moment my sight returned, I could see we were all in a bubble flying away from the coliseum with Piccolomon before us.  
"Piccolomon! We missed you!" Takeru cheered.  
"I did too, pi!" The pixie smiled.  
"Brilliant timing, Sarge!" I enthusiastically praised.  
"You were able to approach us by creating a barrier that the enemy couldn't see!" Koushiro said.  
"That's right pi!" He nodded.  
"Piccolomon! We came all this way believing that as long as the nine of us are together, we could save both our worlds! And yet…!" Taichi tried to explain what our beliefs were on returning to the Digital World.  
"It's true that all nine of you are together pi, but that's not enough to win pi!"

"What are we missing?" Sora asked.  
"Tell us!" Jou demanded.  
"Unfortunately, we don't have that sort of time pi!" Piccolomon reluctantly said. The whole bubble began to rock to our horror.  
"Found you." MetalSeadramon proclaimed.  
"I'll stop them pi! Head towards Spiral Mountain while I keep them busy pi!"  
"Stop them?" Yamato questioned. "But they're all Ultimate-Levels!"  
"I know that pi! Even if I can't win, I can still put up a fight pi!"  
"Then I'll fight with you!" Taichi was determined to keep fighting. So was I but at time being, sometimes you need to admit defeat and survive in order to come back and win another day.  
"No, fool! You're the last hope for his world pi!" Another Ultimate Stream rocked the bubble once again.  
"At least if you're gonna do this, try to give yourself an opportunity to escape!" I advised him. He smirked at that suggestion and nodded, then he flew out to buy us some time.  
"I'm sure you'll be able to find, pi, what you are lacking! When you do, you will be invincible pi! Now go, Chosen Children!" He swung his staff on the bubble and sent us flying away from the fight at even greater speeds.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"You are Piccolomon, aren't you?" Piemon asked at the brave pixie Digimon. "Do you seriously believe that you, a Perfect-Level, could win against us?"  
"Say what you want! I'll make you pay pi!" He fervently declared.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We kept seeing the coliseum shrink and shrink from our view.  
"Come on, Sarge… Come on, Sarge… get out of there…" I muttered. Suddenly there was a bright light and then there was no doubt about what had just happened. "Damn it...!" I smashed my fist against the bubble.  
"Piccolomon is dead…" Hikari sadly admitted. With heavy hearts, our bubble kept flying towards the base of Spiral Mountain, where we hope that we can somehow turn things around. What started with high hopes when we returned to the Digital World had now turned to doubt and sorrow as two more Digimon paid the ultimate price in order to save us. There were only two questions now filled our minds.

How are we going to defeat the Dark Masters and save both worlds and how many more good Digimon are going to die for us before that happens…?

* * *

And that was Chapter 41. I really felt bad writing both Chuumon and Piccolomon's deaths. Always puts a sour taste in my mouth to see any heroic Digimon buy it.

Anyways a few things, that Blackadder quote is actually as follows: 'Yes. Well, it started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle, and the less said about the end, the better. But, apart than that, excellent.'

And the other things about clowns... John Oliver is right about them. 'They're clowns, they're programmed for murder.' Look I was little when I saw _**Stephen King's**_ _ **It**_ and the one scene I saw was when Pennywise was digging everyone's grave which I've been told was a legitimately scary scene. Of course now, it's hard to take him that seriously when it's Tim Curry hamming it up like usual.

Besides, I'm better with clowns thanks to Soren Bowie's advice from Cracked's After Hours video Four Creepy Hidden Truths Behind Popular Scary Stories.  
Katie: 'We just fear it more, because we fear what we can't control.' *Soren blows a raspberry* 'Alright, Soren, I think we all recall from your behavior from last year's screening of the movie, _**It**_ , your nightmare twig snapper... is a clown!'  
Soren: 'Okay, I've proven time and again that I can control clowns by putting them in a chokehold!'

Alright, now I think I've rambled long enough, so take care everyone. I'll see you soon.

 _ **'Push the button, Frank.'**_


	43. The Wild Sea King! MetalSeadramon!

Good news, everyone! It's a new chapter!

As always, shoutouts! One to **MadDogLucario96** for his review and **Poosa-ard** for her fav.

Not much to say this time, so let's just get on with the story.

* * *

 **Chapter 42: The Wild Sea King! MetalSeadramon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Boy, things have taken a turn for the worst. After going full Castlevania on Vamdemon, we were maybe a bit over confident that we could be able to solve the problems of the Digital World and restore both it and Earth to normal before a cataclysmic catastrophe; only to pay for our overconfidence in heavy blood. The Dark Masters completely bushwhacked us from the moment we returned to the Digital World and only at the cost of two close allies who sacrificed themselves for us were we able to escape and regroup at the base of Spiral Mountain.

"Where are we?" Taichi questioned.  
"There's sand under our feet." Sora observed.  
"And some rocky cliffs to our backs." I added.  
"We could be in a desert." Yamato guessed.  
"I smell salt." Koushiro informed. He's right, now I'm smelling it too.  
"Are those waves?" observed Mimi.  
"It's the ocean!" Jou shouted.  
"I'm starting to see things a bit clearer." Takeru said as the fog was beginning to clear up.  
"The fog is disappearing." Hikari told us.

"Are you guys okay?" Taichi asked the group.  
"No, everyone's exhausted." Sora admitted.  
"We're also pretty down in spirits, I'd like to add." I claimed.  
"In any case, where are we?" Yamato was wondering our location.  
"I feel as though we've been here before." Koushiro scratched his head, trying to recall where he has seen this beach. "Ah! Broken telephone booths…" He pointed towards a pile of metal scrap by the beach. All of us except for Hikari gasped at the sight. This was the same beach where we spent our first meal in the Digital World! It's also the place where we ran into Shellmon and Agumon first evolved into Greymon.  
"It's those telephone booths!"  
"Yeah! This is the beach on File Island where we met our Digimon for the first time and set off on our journey!" Taichi reminded as well as informed Hikari and Tailmon who weren't with us at the time.

 _Spiral Mountain Castle, Digital World. R-Day. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

At the same time the Chosen Children were recalling their earliest Digimon adventures, they were currently being observed by Piemon from his observatory.  
"I've spotted the Chosen Children and their Digimon." He told his fellow Dark Master. Despite being pure evil, Piemon was actually pretty respectful to other Dark Masters, so long as they remember that he was the director of the show, as he would phrase it.  
"As Sea King, the coastal area is under my control." MetalSeadramon gave his claim as to why he should be the one to deal with the Children at the moment. "Their lives are mine for the taking. My only problem now is who I should use among my evil Deep Savers Army…"

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

After a quick trip down memory lane when things seemed much simpler, we headed our way down the beach, hopeful to catch some sort of brake or a sign of what to do next.  
"Since we're back on File Island again…" Koushiro was beginning to say something before Yamato interrupted him.  
"Could there be some sort of meaning behind it?"  
"I thought we were brought back to File Island because we're meant to be here." Sora gave her thoughts about why we were here.  
"I see..." Agumon moaned before he and Gabumon fell over in exhaustion.  
"But what are we meant to do here?" I asked.  
"Help me!" A voice cried out. "Help me!"  
"Someone's drowning!" Mimi cried out and pointed towards the water where it was being tossed up as if someone was flailing their arms in order to prevent from drowning.  
"We have to help him!" Hikari insisted.  
"But our Digimon are tired…" Takeru informed.  
"Then we'll do it ourselves!"  
"Okay!"

The two of them quickly ran towards the water, but Yamato and myself quickly ran up to stop them.  
"Takeru!" "Wait, Hikari!" The two of us stopped our younger siblings.  
"Let's all go to help him!" I told them. We looked over to a canoe that was ashore.  
"We'll use that canoe over there." Yamato said. We all ran towards it while our Digimon stayed on shore. Yamato, Jou, Ross and I were the ones paddling while Koushiro worked the rudder.  
"Help me! Help me!" The voice cried. When we approached him, however, we were in a bit of a surprise when we found a floating tube where he was.  
"Huh? How can he be drowning when he has an inflatable tube?" Mimi questioned. The water suddenly sprouted up and revealed that the tube was hooked to the shell of Shellmon!  
"Shellmon!" He roared.  
"Do you know him, Onii-chan?" Hikari asked.  
"We've fought this guy once!" I informed.  
"And I'm pretty sure he remembers us!" Ross shouted.  
"We can't win against him! Run!" We quickly turned the boat around and began paddle back to shore as fast as possible.

"I'll sink you to the bottom of the ocean!" Shellmon roared.  
"Hurry up, guys!" Agumon yelled. He didn't need to tell us twice!  
"He's closing in!" Mimi screamed. Shellmon tried to take a bite out of our canoe but just missed. Despite our paddling, we just couldn't outrun him. He sliced right through the outboard part of the canoe, and it was clear that we were next if something didn't change soon.  
"You can't escape!" Shellmon cried.  
"We've got to push our tiredness away and go save them!" Agumon informed. The other Child-Level and the one Adult-Level Digimon nodded in agreement.  
"Wait! Leave this to us!" Mochimon volunteered with the other Baby-Levels.  
"Pukamon, evolve! GOMAMON!" "Tanemon, evolve! PALMON!" "Mochimon, evolve! TENTOMON!" "Pyocomon, evolve! PIYOMON!" The two flying Digimon and the one swimming one went straight towards Shellmon while Palmon stood on the beach in a bid to rescue us.

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon's vines grabbed Shellmon's head that stopped him in his tracks.  
"Wh-What?!"  
"Magical Fire!" "Petit Thunder!" "Marching Fishes!" The other two launched their attacks while Gomamon got his fish to propel us forward back to the beach where we'd be slightly safer.  
"Hurry, Hurry! You can do it, guys! Go, go!" Gomamon encouraged his fish friends.  
"Help me – for real this time!" Shellmon panicked as he hid in his shell and sank back into the water. Piyomon and Tentomon fell and landed in the tube that he left behind.

"Everyone is weary with exhaustion for now." I began to speak after we took a few minutes to rest and regroup on the beach. "But I think our Digimon are definitely getting stronger!"  
"Onii-chan… How can you tell?" asked Hikari.  
"When we fought against Shellmon last time, we were only able to win after Agumon had evolved into Greymon."  
"Yes, because you two were the only ones who ate when we were dividing the food and trying to conserve it." Jou reminded in kind of an insulting way.  
"Even so, this time, we didn't need Agumon to evolve!"  
"That's because we all joined forces and fought together." Agumon ran up with Tailmon and Guilmon.  
"But Greymon's power alone should be stronger than everyone's powers combined."  
"Maybe Shellmon got weaker." Hikari suggested.  
"No, I'm sure this means that each of our Digimon are getting stronger."

"I'm inclined to agree with you Taichi. I think I see it too." Ross spoke up.  
"Well, how do you see it?" I asked.  
"Think back to when Agumon and Guilmon first reached their Perfect-Levels. When we got sucked through that wormhole back to Japan, they reverted back to their Baby-Levels. They kept doing that for the next few times they reached that level until they were able to just revert to their Child Forms. The same goes for Agumon and Gabumon in terms of Ultimate-Level. First time, revert to Baby, earlier today, reverting to Child."  
"You're right. That's what I've been noticing too. To be honest, I've been wondering up 'til now about what Piccolomon had told us earlier. 'It's true that all nine of you are together, but that's not enough to win.'" I recalled. "Which means that we won because everyone has gotten stronger!"  
"Well, I think I feel stronger these days so maybe we have!" Guilmon guessed.

"I agree too." Sora nodded.  
"You think so?" Piyomon questioned.  
"You've grown into a fine individual!" Yamato petted Gabumon's pelt.  
"When you say it like that, I can't help but think it's true!"  
"Do you feel that way about me, too, Koushiro-han?" Tentomon asked.  
"Eh, you're almost there." The bug fell to the ground in disappointment.  
"Have I matured, too?" Patamon inquired.  
"Yeah! Of course you have!" The young blonde informed.  
"What about me?" Tailmon went up to Hikari.  
"We're recent additions to the Chosen Children, so I think it's a little too early to tell right now."  
"Oh. That's disappointing…" Is she forgetting that she's an Adult-Level Digimon?  
"Don't worry, all of us will become stronger!" Agumon assured.  
"You're right!" We all laughed.

The sun soon began blaring down on us and we looked further towards the beach and saw something that our eyes couldn't believe.  
"Is that a mirage?" I asked.  
"That's a beach hut!" Yamato informed.  
"Did there used to be a beach hut on the coasts of File Island?" Takeru questioned.  
"That's not a beach hut on the coasts of File Island… That's a mirage of a beach hut on the coasts of File Island." Koushiro warned.  
"No, that's really a real beach hut on the coasts of File Island!" Tentomon countered the claim. The heat waves died down and the beach hut settled, proving that it in fact was not a mirage. We all let our minds run wild about what was inside, food, drinks, anything at this point would be a blessing after the day we've had. We couldn't help it, we charged forward.

"Ramen!" "Curried rice!" "Ice cream!" "Yakisoba noodles!" We kept on running except for Mimi and Jou who accidently stepped on the back of her shoe causing her to fall over.  
"Pardon me!" Jou apologized.  
"Oh, honestly…" Mimi complained as their Digimon ran back towards them.  
"What are you guys doing?" Gomamon asked.  
"They'll get their hands on all of the food if we don't catch up to them!" Palmon reminded. As for the rest of us, we all ran inside to find the whole place empty and a sandstorm building a barricade of sand that blocked the entrance! We walked into yet another trap! The sand near the entrance exploded and a large sea scorpion popped out.  
"Anomalocarimon!" He announced. "This isn't your average beach hut! It's a death hut that will suck away your energy!"  
"What!?" Yamato questioned. The whole room went bright.  
"Suna Shower!" He launched his Sand Shower attack and pelted us with sand that slowly choked the air out of us until I could feel myself on the edge of consciousness. Damn it! Then everything went black.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"Those voices!" Mimi shouted as we heard some strange sounds coming from the hut.  
"Something must have happened to the others!" I assumed.  
"Hurry!" insisted Gomamon as we ran forward. We could see that the entrance to the hut was blocked by sand.  
"This is…!" Gomamon shushed me. The four of us snuck around until we looked through the blinds to the inside. We discovered that the others were lying on the ground, unconscious and covered by sand.  
"Ah!" We all gasped before we covered each other's mouths. We then heard the familiar sound of MetalSeadramon laughing.  
"Well done, Anomalocarimon! I expect nothing less from a member of my Deep Savers Army!" We hid behind a tree and overheard the conversation between the sea serpent and the sea scorpion. "Here's your reward." MetalSeadramon showered Anomalocarimon with clams, much to his joy.  
"Yay! Anomalocarimon!" He started to dig into those clams like he was at a buffet.

One of the clams that he finished and threw away ended up flying over and hitting Gomamon on his head.  
"Ouch!"  
"Shh!" Palmon quieted him. We all ducked down and stayed as quiet as possible as we feared that we may have inadvertently got their attention.  
"Time for the kill." MetalSeadramon floated away while we crawled away from the both of them. The bad news was the others would be dead in the next few moments if we don't do something soon. He smashed his head through one of the walls of the hut to get a final look at his victims before he probably noticed that we were missing. "There are nine Chosen Children. Two of them aren't here." He then got hit by a clam the scorpion threw away. "How long are you going to keep stuffing yourself?!"  
"Eh?"  
"Hurry up and find the other Chosen Children!"  
"Anomalocarimon!" The sea scorpion followed his orders and went out to search for us. It didn't take long as he spotted us and began to pursue. "Anomalocarimon!"

As he kept getting closer, we all suddenly tripped. That should've spelt our doom but somehow Anomalocarimon collapsed at just the same time.  
"Th-They're fast…" He panted. I guess those clams were slowing him down. We got back up and the chase continued once again. We ran over to some boulders and took cover behind them.  
"Huh?" Looks like we gave him the slip!  
"No more of this…" Palmon gasped for air along with the rest of us.  
"We'll have to fight him…" I admitted.  
"Okay…!" agreed Gomamon. We popped our heads over the boulder and found that Anomalocarimon was nowhere to be found. All that was there was a large hole in the ground.  
"What's the matter?" Mimi asked.  
"Anomalocarimon is… gone." I told her.  
"He ran away!" Gomamon cheered.  
"He could be hiding." suggested Mimi.

"If only we can evolve during this time…" Palmon moaned.  
"Yeah, but we're tired and starving…" Gomamon reminded that without any food in their bodies, it was a no-go for our Digimon evolving and being able to properly fight Anomalocarimon. "Oh yeah! We just have to dig around!" The two Digimon began to dig in the ground. Gomamon found some clams while Palmon gathered some seaweed.  
"Looks tasty!" "Found this!" The two began to eat to regain at least some energy. Hopefully enough to be able to save the others, but if we run into MetalSeadramon… who knows.  
"Anomalocarimon!" The sea scorpion burst out of the water right by us. Both Digimon ran in front of us to defend.  
"Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON!" "Gomamon, evolve! IKKAUKUMON!" The scorpion tried to blow sand from his mouth but both Digimon quickly dodged the attack.  
"Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" Both attacks hit, but it didn't look like they did much.

"Since Togemon and Ikkakumon have matured, I don't think they can lose…" I somewhat believed, as I now knew it was a mistake to always assume you were right when it came to Digimon.  
"And since it's two against one, it should go in our favor!" Mimi agreed with me, though whether or not she had doubts, I couldn't tell. The sea scorpion used his tail to swat away Ikkakumon before putting his pincers around Togemon.  
"It hurts!" She yelled. "Help me!" He then threw her onto Ikkakumon and they both looked pretty beat up.  
"They're losing…" I muttered. Yeah, looks like we may have been wrong about getting stronger.  
"It's dangerous to keep this up!" Mimi shouted. "We'll all be killed!" Anomalocarimon turned his attention back towards us.  
"Maybe we'll win if they evolve one more time!"  
"Suna Shower!" We hid behind the boulder once more as the sand attack bounced off the rock.  
"Wait! I'm the one you're fighting!" Ikkakumon got his attention.

"Stinger Surprise!" He launched an energy attack that blew a large hole in the ground that both our Digimon quickly dodged. In the whole was revealed to be a bunch of clams. "Hey, this looks delicious!" He picked them up and was distracted for the moment.  
"Now, Ikkakumon!" I ordered.  
"Super-evolve, Togemon!" Mimi advised.  
"Togemon, super-evolve! LILIMON!" "Ikkakumon, super-evolve! ZUDOMON!" Anomalocarimon's attention returned back to the fight but his love for clams would prove to be his undoing.  
"Stinger Surprise!" Zudomon ducked and the attack merely was absorbed by his shell.  
"Flower Cannon!" The shot hit the scorpion right in between his two eyes which disoriented him before Zudomon swung his hammer towards him.  
"Hammer Spark!" The strike hit him in the same place and he fell over unconscious.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back at the hut, the others were slowly beginning to come back to after being knocked out by Anomalocarimon's attack.  
"Hikari…" Taichi muttered to his sister whom he had his shoulder over.  
"He's late! Anomalocarimon is late!" MetalSeadramon shouted. "What is he doing?"  
"Faster, Zudomon!" Jou ordered as the remainder of the Chosen Children was running back to the hut to save the others with Zudomon dragging the sea scorpion in tow. "We have to save everyone before it's too late!"  
"I don't care anymore about the other two Chosen Children." He shot a stream of fire from his mouth into the sky in order burn alive the children inside.  
"MetalSeadramon is planning to burn down the entire beach hut with everyone in it!" Mimi loudly whispered as not to draw his attention.

"Come on, hurry!" Lilimon motioned and flew through the hole in the wall of the hut and the others followed to get the rest of their group out. "Taichi, pull yourself together!"  
"Lilimon?"  
"Sora-san!" "Yamato, Ross, Koushiro!" The two children shouted.  
"Wake up, everyone!" Lilimon alerted.  
"What, what's going on?" Tentomon asked.  
"Trouble, if their tone is any indication." Guilmon assumed.  
"Fire!" MetalSeadramon roared as he begun to light the hut ablaze.  
"Hikari!" "Takeru! You alright?" Ross and Taichi were carrying the youngest members of the group out of the now burning hut. The two kids muttered something along the lines of yes, but it was hard to hear with all the fire. Zudomon was leaving behind a gift in the form of letting Anomalocarimon be burned alive in the hut.

"Seven of the Chosen Children and their Digimon are now dead!" MetalSeadramon declared his victory. He laughed at the act he committed before his victory was interrupted by Anomalocarimon who burst out of the hut on fire.  
"It's hot! It's hot! Anomalocarimon!" He screamed in pain as he ran towards the water to put himself out. "Ah!" He sighed in relief as he put himself out.  
"Wh-What? They're gone! The seven Chosen Children and their Digimon are gone!" MetalSeadramon questioned. He was completely dumbfounded. The children were right there in his metal grasp and they escaped. "Anomalocarimon! What's the meaning of this?"  
"MetalSeadramon-sama!" The sea scorpion tried to save face. "W-Well, that is… er…" The serpent grabbed him with his tail and dragged him high into the sky.  
"No excuses!" He yelled before he let Anomalocarimon drop to his death. All that was left was a hole the shape of him that imprinted in the sand.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"It looks like MetalSeadramon left." Lilimon said as we all huddled by the beach.  
"Everything's all right now." Taichi believed.  
"Actually, it's not." Mimi spoke up.  
"Huh?"  
"She's right." Jou chimed in.  
"What do you mean? What happened?"  
"Ikkakumon and Togemon weren't enough to beat Anomalocarimon. They could only beat him after they had evolved into Zudomon and Lilimon. Our chances of winning still aren't good if we fight against MetalSeadramon now."  
"So it's just like Piccolomon said… Even with the nine of us together, it's not enough to win… Could it be that the Digimon's evolutions still have much to be worked on?"

"What's that?" Tentomon questioned as he flew up in the air. The waves beside us began to pick up and the reason for that exploded out of them. It was MetalSeadramon!  
"MetalSeadramon!" Taichi shouted.  
"Leave this to me. All of you ride on Zudomon's back and get out of here!" Lilimon ordered us to escape.  
"Lilimon!" Mimi yelled, not wanting to see her Digimon partner get hurt in such an outclassed fight. She flew right towards him before turning and he followed her along, giving us the chance to try and escape. Unfortunately, the distraction didn't last long as Lilimon flew towards the trees and foiled MetalSeadramon's pursuit, which is why he turned around and looked towards us.  
"Idiots! You think you can escape from me in water?"  
"MetalSeadramon is gaining on us!" Tentomon informed.  
"Hurry! Run, Zudomon!" Taichi cried out.  
"As if that'll happen!" MetalSeadramon was right, we were in his element. We were sunk if something doesn't change soon.

"Flower Cannon!" Lilimon's shot just bounced off MetalSeadramon's armor. He grew tired of her distractions and whipped her with his tail.  
"Lilimon!" Mimi cried. The flower fairy flew right back towards us and devolved back to Palmon before being caught by Mimi. "Palmon!" MetalSeadramon then just slowly sank into the ocean, like a U-Boat dropping its periscope, ready for the kill. It was deathly quiet for the next few moments before the serpent burst from the water, his horn pointed for a charge.  
"Here he comes!" Taichi pointed towards him.  
"Zudomon!" It was too late. He was rammed into the shell and we were all thrown off into the ocean. Zudomon charged and rammed MetalSeadramon as well but the winner was obvious.  
"Ultimate Stream!" One blast and Zudomon was defeated.  
"Gomamon!" Jou shouted before he was hit by the seal Digimon, who landed on top of him.

MetalSeadramon laughed as he had us at his mercy. Now I know how Dad and the crew of the Shiloh now felt after they had been sunk. However, there was no Vietnamese destroyer coming to capture us and throw us in a POW camp, as MetalSeadramon was prepared to destroy us, once and for all.  
"Huh?" He said as a large shadow swam underneath us. Yet another last second save from a Digimon ally!  
"Whamon!" Taichi called out. The whale Digimon launched himself out of the water and crashed right into MetalSeadramon who collapsed in complete surprise. Then Whamon opened his mouth and we started flowing into it. "We're saved! Whamon will protect us within his body!" After getting washed back into Whamon's empty stomach, thankfully without the threat of acid this time, we escaped from the clutches of MetalSeadramon.  
"You Chosen Children and your Digimon… You won't escape!" MetalSeadramon roared.

We managed to get away from the serpent, but for how long…

* * *

And that was Chapter 42.

I've really got nothing much to say this time around, but I've got some tests coming up, so see you as soon as I can.

 ** _"Push the button, Frank."_**


	44. The Silence of the Ocean Bottom! Whamon!

Chapter 43! Sorry for the delay, tests and catching back up with Brooklyn Nine-Nine kept me from writing.

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for another review and to **Uncreative719** , **breaker101** , and **DigimonAT0318** (Sorry man, Takari fan for life.) for their faves and follows.

Anyways, let's continue.

* * *

 **Chapter 43: The Silence of the Ocean Bottom! Whamon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Curse those Chosen Children…!" MetalSeadramon growled. He had the children right where he wanted them, at his complete and utter mercy. However, Whamon just had to show up and save them, ruining his finest hour. Whamon showing up was a surprise but it wasn't going to help them much. He was still the Sea King of the Digital World's oceans, and no matter where they tried to hide, they would be found sooner or later. Several blue fish-like creatures wearing wet suits broke the surface of the water behind the metal serpent. "Hangyomon."  
"We're sorry to be late, sir." One of them said.  
"Never mind. I control these waters. The Chosen Children can't escape me no matter where they choose to run. Not even with Whamon's help. Now go! Capture the Chosen Children!"  
"Aye-aye, sir!" The Hangyomon shouted as they went to work.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Once again, we're alive thanks to Whamon's timely intervention. Still, the sheer fact that we keep getting saved against the Dark Masters really proves we need to be much more careful, those guys are anywhere and everywhere. We were all currently sitting on top of Whamon as we sailed away from MetalSeadramon, letting the wind flow through our hair.  
"Thanks for saving us, Whamon!" Taichi thanked.  
"Really! I thought we were done for!" Koushiro admitted.  
"That was amazing of you to fight MetalSeadramon like that." I praised.  
"I'm just glad that all of you are safe." Whamon informed.  
"Hey, Whamon. What do you think we should do to beat the Dark Masters?" Yamato asked.  
"Why did they do this to the Digimon world?" Sora also questioned.  
"Unfortunately, I am not familiar on the details." Whamon sadly said. "All I felt was the sudden trembling of the earth, and the situation you see here formed before I could even step in to stop it. That was when MetalSeadramon took control of the oceans."

"Damn that MetalSeadramon!" Taichi slammed his fist down onto Whamon's back.  
"Onii-chan… cheer up!" Hikari hugged him.  
"Yeah… You're right!" He quickly got back in order and looked above at the seagulls flying around us. "Chin up, everyone!"  
"Yeah!" We all agreed.  
"Yes, let's all keep our spirits up. I don't know if there are any safe places left in this world, but we should at least find a place that MetalSeadramon cannot reach." Whamon explained. Let's just pray we can in fact find some sort of safe haven, if only for the time being.

 _Crescent Moon Island, Digital World. R-Day+3. Morning.  
_ _P.O.V – Sora Takenouchi_

The next few days had us hopping from island to island in an effort to stay at least one step ahead of MetalSeadramon. Thankfully, the tiny islands we kept arriving to had food and we were able to stay there for the night as well. By the morning of our fourth day back to the Digimon world, we were sitting around on Whamon fishing for food in the bay of a small crescent moon shaped island. Some of the guys were busy fishing while Yamato played his harmonica. At the same time, there were multiple fish that were jumping out of the water and Tailmon was just standing right beside a plate we found. A second later, she jumped up and two fish landed on the plate, fully cut up, much to our amazement. Palmon stepped up and used her Poison Ivy to grab a huge fish… that ended up flatting her.

"What's wrong, Yamato?" Taichi asked why Yamato suddenly stopped playing.  
"Oh… I was wondering if we could really beat the Dark Masters."  
"Sure we can, we've got to. The fate of the both worlds is at stake here." Ross reminded.  
"I know that but… They're different from the Digimon we've fought before. Would we be able to win with our usual battling style?"  
"There is a possibility…" Koushiro walked up to them. "With WarGreymon. He can use his Dramon Killer."  
"Dramon Killer?"  
"What's that?" Taichi questioned.  
"It's the weapon that is on WarGreymon's arms." Koushiro explained. "According to the Digimon Analyzer, this weapon is highly effective against Dramon-type Digimon. Dramon Killer… If he uses this, we have a chance."  
"Great idea, Koushiro! The Dramon Killer, huh? Hey, Agumon! It's your turn to shine!" We were all suddenly shocked when Agumon managed to eat the entire fish that had crushed Palmon without even chewing. "Y-You can do it…"  
"Okay~" He mumbled with part of the fish still in his mouth.

Jou's fishing line began to tug violently indicating that he had caught something big before the thing dragged him right off of Whamon's back and into the waters of the bay.  
"Guys, we've got a problem!" Gomamon shouted from the water.  
"What's the matter, Gomamon?" Jou sighed as he discovered the fish he caught and was thrown into the water was his partner.  
"The enemy is coming!"  
"Whaaat?!" Jou yelled.  
"Where? Where?" Piyomon begged. I looked around the area.  
"I don't see any sign of them around." I admitted.  
"The fishes say that they have spotted MetalSeadramon's minions about three-hundred and twenty kilometers behind us." informed Whamon.  
"Eh!?" We all said.  
"What should we do?" Takeru questioned.  
"Takeru…" Patamon didn't have much of an answer.  
"They'll be arriving here soon." Whamon explained. "Everyone, get inside. I will shake them off by widening the distance between us.  
"Okay." We all nodded and got back inside the safety of his body.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

As Whamon and the kids made their escape, MetalSeadramon's forces were hot on their trail.  
"Areas Thirteen through Eighteen are all clear." A Hangyomon called in over their radios.  
"Areas Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four are all clear." Another one reported in.  
"How long is this delay going to last?!" One of them that was swimming near MetalSeadramon bemoaned at the sheer fact that they were unable to find the Chosen Children already. "Why can't we find that huge lump of a whale?!"  
"There's no need to rush." MetalSeadramon told him. "I control the entire ocean. No matter where they run to, I'll have them sooner or later."  
"Sir." The Hangyomon nodded in understanding.  
"Just relax and enjoy the hunt."  
"Sir."  
"Chosen Children… The hunt has only just begun." He laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I was typing away on my laptop as I had several cords running up into Whamon. I didn't really like the idea of not really knowing what was outside so I was trying to fix that. The rest of us were all just huddled around me looking at what I was doing.  
"Koushiro. What are you doing?" Tailmon asked as she was lying on Hikari's lap.  
"Just a minute." I said.  
"C'mon, stop putting on a show and just tell us." Taichi was fed up with all the waiting.  
"Well, you'll see in a minute." A few more keystrokes and… "All right, it's connected." The others gathered closely around my screen. It looks like they were in awe of what was now showing on the screen, but why not? Not that many people have actually seen the ocean floor.  
"Koushiro-han. What is this?" Tentomon questioned.  
"I've linked my laptop to Whamon's sensory information so that it can be transmitted to the screen."  
"Transmitted?" Patamon was confused by that word.  
"In other words, what you're seeing here is exactly what Whamon is seeing right now."

"That's impressive!" Yamato praised my handiwork.  
"That's incredibly useful of us!" added Ross.  
"Wow!" Mimi got up while holding Palmon's hands. "It's like we're in a submarine!" Mimi started to swing Palmon round and round.  
"Of course, this can only be done in the Digital World." I pointed out. As soon as I said that, Hikari began to hold her ears in pain.  
"Hikari, are you okay?" concerned Tailmon.  
"What's wrong, Hikari?" Taichi ran over.  
"I'm okay… It's just my ears…" She said, and soon my ears started to hurt as well. Mimi suddenly stopped spinning Palmon and grabbed her ears as well.  
"Now that you mention it, my ears hurt a little, too."  
"I'm sorry! I must have dived too deeply in my haste." Whamon laughed in apologetic manner. "I'll adjust the atmospheric pressure right now."

The ringing of the pressure began to vanish as soon as Whamon blew some bubbles out of his blowhole.  
"That's much better!" Takeru told Whamon.  
"So the pressure changed because you swam to the bottom." I guessed.  
"Thank you, Whamon!" Hikari thanked.  
"What's that sound?" Piyomon asked.  
"It sounds like buzzing…" Guilmon listened.  
"What's wrong?" Palmon asked as she finally snapped out of her dizziness.  
"Keep it down, everyone!" I ordered. We all kept quite as we heard the buzzing noise float over us. Whamon had informed that we were being pursued by Hangyomon who travelled around with underwater propulsion tanks on their backs. The buzzing began to slowly fade, meaning that the Hangyomon were passing by. We all shared a collective sigh of relief.  
"Sounds like they've passed us." Gomamon assumed.

"We're not out of danger yet." Whamon warned. "We'll have to keep quiet for a little longer." All of a sudden, the buzzing began to pick up again, and through Whamon's audio receptors which were hooked up to the Power Book, we could hear what was said underwater.  
"Found him! There's Whamon!" One of the Hangyomon shouted, to our horror.  
"Crap!" Taichi cursed. "They found us!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"I've found Whamon!" One of the pursing Hangyomon called in over the radio. "He's lurking on the ocean floor in Area Fifty-One!"  
"Understood." The Hangyomon swimming with MetalSeadramon confirmed. "I'll report this right away to MetalSeadramon-sama! Sir! They've found Whamon!" MetalSeadramon jumped out of the water in a sense of happiness. His hated enemies had now been found and were now being chased by his forces. "We've found the Chosen Children!"

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Strike Fishing!" One of the Hangyomon shouted as he threw his harpoon at Whamon's large body.  
"They're coming!" Koushiro yelled, informing Whamon to get a move on, or we'll be in real big trouble.  
"The Hangyomon are attacking!" He told us what we already knew. "Hang on, everyone!" On the monitor of Koushiro's laptop, everything went white as Whamon blew a huge cloud of bubbles that acted as an underwater smokescreen. The harpoons thankfully missed their targets to our relief but the trouble was only just beginning. If they were attacking us, then that means that MetalSeadramon wouldn't be too far behind.  
"What should we do, Takeru?" Patamon worried.  
"We'll be killed at this rate!" He admitted to me.  
"I hate to say it, but as long as we're stuck inside Whamon…" I told everyone.  
"We're sitting ducks by being cooped up in here." Ross finished what I was trying to say.

Taichi punched his hands together in anger.  
"Can't we do anything?" He questioned. The fact that we were unable to do anything was really tearing away at him.  
"There are three more pursuers behind us!" alerted Koushiro. Great, more Hangyomon.  
"What?!" Sora shouted.  
"The enemy has brought reinforcements!" Whamon said.  
"They're gaining on us!" Tentomon panicked.  
"Whamon! You've got to surface! Then we'll be able to fight back!" Taichi advised. He was right though; we'd be of much better help if we could fight as well.  
"Please!" I begged.  
"Whamon!"  
"I have another idea." He informed. "If it works, we should be able to lose the enemy!"  
"If it… works?" Palmon muttered.

"Strike Fishing!" Another group of harpoons were coming out way once again.  
"What if it doesn't work?!" Mimi doubted. Whamon kept on swimming as the harpoons missed once again. Whamon swam forward to a large underwater trench and dived forward, probably to the shock of our pursuers.  
"What's he trying to do?" Looks like I was right about the confusion.  
"What an idiot! He's trying to escape through this narrow space?"  
"All right! Now's our chance to trap him!" Gods, I hope Whamon knows what he's doing right now. The Hangyomon were right beside Whamon now.  
"There's no use struggling!"  
"This is the end for you! Give it up!"  
"W-We're done for!" Jou screamed.

One of the Hangyomon stabbed Whamon but it was clear he had some pretty tough skin as it barely stung him.  
"No!" Palmon and Mimi held each other close and yelled in fear. We were so dead. Imagine ours as well as the Hangyomon when one of their propulsion packs on their backs suddenly crumpled and sent him back towards the surface, leaving his buddies all but confused and halted at what events just happened.  
"Water pressure! So this was Whamon's plan!" Koushiro figured it out. We all suddenly cheered at our close call. I guess it was wrong to doubt Whamon about his plan.  
"Whamon is a deep-sea Digimon, so water pressure is nothing to him!" Gomamon explained what had just happened.  
"All right, Whamon!" praised Jou.

"That was close." Taichi sighed.  
"What a tricky card you had up your sleeve!" Tailmon gave her appreciation.  
"Another few moments there and I was worried we were fish food." Ross joked.  
"But Ross-chan, Onii-chan… What do we do now?" Hikari questioned. That's true… Where do we go from here? What's our next move?  
"We can't stay in the bottom of the ocean forever…" Sora reminded.  
"I've got it!" An idea struck Koushiro. "Hikari-kun, can you come over here?" Hikari walked over to him and he began to whisper something in her ear.  
"Okay." She nodded.

A few moments later, she walked away from us before turning around when we all looked at her and bowing.  
"Here I go." She put her whistle in her mouth.  
"Whenever you're ready." Koushiro gave his go-ahead. Hikari took a deep breath before blowing hard into her whistle. So hard in fact that she actually started to float upward like she was not affected by gravity. She went at this for almost a good twenty seconds before she finally stopped. Suddenly, Koushiro's computer began to beep. "It worked! Thank you, Hikari-kun!"  
"Sure!" She panted, trying to collect her breath.  
"I used the reverberations of the sound to find a tunnel up ahead. We may be able to escape through it." Is that what all of that was about?  
"Yes, I felt it, too." Whamon said. "That tunnel is connected to land that is above ground.  
"All right!" We cheered.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

MetalSeadramon was livid, but he should've known better. He had made the mistake of underestimating the Chosen Children but learned that they could be pretty resourceful. The fact that his Hangyomon failed him wasn't that surprising anyways, all they were for was just tracking down Whamon, they did their jobs at least up until Whamon managed to escape them. However, he knew what the Chosen Children were up to next. They were too predictable at point.  
"I can tell what you're thinking." He said aloud to himself. "Enjoy playing submarine while you still can!"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

We were clearly exploring unknown territory. We're probably the first humans to ever reach this deep in the ocean in human history… and it's technically not even our own world. As Whamon was swimming along through the tunnels, we could see on Koushiro's screen the magnificent sight of yellow lights filling the waters. I think they maybe some sort of plankton or algae but still beautiful.  
"Wow, pretty!" Hikari, Sora, and myself cried at the sight, while the guys were kinda not that interested, expect for Ross who cracked a joke.  
"Eat your heart out, Robert Ballard." He snorted. A few moments later, we saw another great sight.  
"There's the tunnel!" Yamato pointed on the screen.  
"We're saved!" Palmon cheered!  
"All right!" I joined her before opening my arms for another hug. She hesitated, probably because of me spinning her around like crazy earlier. All of a sudden, we were rocked around as something was causing Whamon to shake.

"Are they here again?!" Taichi questioned.  
"We weren't able to shake them off?" Tailmon inquired.  
"Hold on tight! It's MetalSeadramon!" Whamon yelled. This is not good, we're in his element and he's right on us! We need to get to the surface face if we wanna survive. We held on tight as Whamon seemed to swim through a very tight part of the tunnel before he thankfully surfaced by some beaches and a large bridge. We all climbed back out of MetalSeadramon and boy was it great to see the sun again!  
"It's so bright!" Taichi cheered, thankful that we were no longer trapped underwater.  
"The air is so fresh!" I said as I let the wind ride through my hair.  
"Nice to no longer be all stuffed up in there! No offence, Whamon!" Ross was quick to say.  
"Who'd have ever thought the sun could make you feel so good?" Yamato cried as we all laughed.

"What's so funny?" A sinister voice from the water said. We stopped our laughing as MetalSeadramon jumped out of the water.  
"MetalSeadramon!"  
"How?" questioned Sora.  
"This is as far as you go, Chosen Children!" He threatened.  
"Damn it!" Taichi cursed.  
"Everyone, hang onto me!" Whamon advised. He soon began to swim round and round in the cove. "Tidal Wave!" As it turns out, there were Hangyomon that were hiding on our side of the bridge that were washed away by Whamon's attack.  
"Taichi!" Agumon called out.  
"I'll leave it to you!" He said, remembering the idea we had to defeat the Dark Masters earlier this morning. "Let's move to shore and take up battle positions while Agumon is distracting them!"  
"Okay!" Yamato nodded.  
"Then Gomamon and I will cover you!" Jou offered his support.  
"Thanks!"  
"The waves are subsiding!" Sora observed.  
"Let's go, people!" Ross ordered.

 _Digital World. R-Day+3. Noon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Agumon!" Taichi pulled out his Digivice.  
"Here I go! Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" WarGreymon flew up towards the large serpent and got straight to work fighting him with a quick slash across the face.  
"I'm made of Chrome Digizoid just like you! You can't hurt me that easily!" The rest of us used the distraction to reach shore thanks to Birdramon, Kabuterimon, Garurumon and Ikkakumon.  
"Thanks, Whamon!" Taichi waved. "Leave the rest to us!"  
"But…!" The whale tried to protest as he still felt that he was a part of this fight.  
"You'll just end up being target practice with your size!" Yamato explained to him. "Hurry up and get out of here!"  
"Hurry!" Sora insisted.  
"I understand!" Whamon finally agreed and dived once more.

"You're not getting away!" A Hangyomon threw his harpoon at Jou and Ikkakumon.  
"Harpoon Vulcan!" Ikkakumon responded with his own harpoon and saturated the waters with explosive fire, utterly devastating any attacks that those Hangyomon wanted to do, if any of them were still alive. Turns out they were and they threw a bunch of harpoons that caused Jou to hop around just trying to avoid being skewered by them.  
"Ikkakumon, keep it up!" He shouted.  
"You got it! Ikkakumon, evolve! ZUDOMON! Hammer Spark!" One swing at the water and the Hangyomon attack was stopped in its tracks.  
"Ultimate Stream!" MetalSeadramon's attack ripped across the water and the land causing significant damage that thankfully we all missed.  
"Brave Shield!" WarGreymon flew with his shield protecting him right into the Dark Master.

"Moron!" He shouted as he trapped WarGreymon in his mouth.  
"Oh no!" WarGreymon realized his mistake and was dragged underwater by the Ultimate-Level Digimon.  
"WarGreymon!" Taichi shouted right next to me in worry about his Digimon partner.  
"Not good! He's at an overwhelming disadvantage in water!" Koushiro informed.  
"Hammer Spark!" Zudomon had just finished off the remained of MetalSeadramon's forces, but got lost in the battle.  
"Where is everyone else?" Jou questioned. "Thank goodness!" He finally noticed some of the others on the beach before MetalSeadramon jumped out of the water again with WarGreymon still in his mouth.  
"WarGreymon!" Hikari yelled.  
"Get out of there!" I added.  
"Damn it…!" Taichi was feeling guilty that WarGreymon was suffering, as if it was his fault.

"What a fool you are, WarGreymon!" WarGreymon was trying hard to keep the serpents jaw open so he wouldn't be devoured. "You're finished!" Before he could be able to finish him off, Whamon rejoined the fight and body slammed into MetalSeadramon just like he did a few days ago. The strike actually gave WarGreymon the chance to escape from the clutches of MetalSeadramon, much to our relief. "You can't be serious!" MetalSeadramon launched an Ultimate Stream… that blasted a hole right through Whamon's head.  
"Whamon!" We shouted. Yet another one of our friends pays the price! WarGreymon wasn't allowing Whamon's sacrifice to be wasted. He began to spin in the air and charge right towards MetalSeadramon.  
"Brave Tornado!"  
"Ultimate Stream!" The attack hit WarGreymon but his tore right through it and flew right into MetalSeadramon's mouth before flying right through his whole body and blasting out of his back. MetalSeadramon was armored on the outside but his internal organs were not and WarGreymon tore them apart, killing him instantly. We did it… we actually did it… we managed to kill one of the Dark Masters.  
"We won…!" Taichi muttered. WarGreymon quickly devolved back into Koromon and he was clearly exhausted.

We all regrouped back at the beach right near Whamon who was still alive but his wound was clearly fatal. We were trying hard to keep the tears from flowing.  
"Chosen Children…" Whamon struggled to speak. "Please… save this world…" He breathed his final breath and began to disintegrate into data that floated away.  
"Whamon!" We all cried.  
"Whamon…" Takeru muttered. "Did he die?"  
"Look at that, everyone." Koushiro pointed to MetalSeadramon who was following suit and turning into data as well.  
"It's happening to MetalSeadramon, too…" Yamato said.  
"They're floating in the sky." Sora looked above.  
"Where's it heading?" Gomamon asked.  
"To the top of Spiral Mountain!" informed Tentomon.

Suddenly, the ground beneath us began to shake.  
"An earthquake?" I questioned.  
"No!" Taichi pointed ahead. "There's the reason why the ground is shaking!" We looked to see the whole ocean that was part of Spiral Mountain was slowly receding away from the peak, leaving nothing but a large gap in between.  
"The ocean…!" Sora shouted.  
"It's disappearing!" Jou claimed. If the ocean was vanishing here, then maybe are folks back home are seeing it too. Whatever it means, we did something right. We successfully killed one of the Dark Masters. One down and three to go.

Of course, that's easier said than done…

* * *

And that was Chapter 43.

I've really got nothing much to say on this one other than the next chapter is gonna be one heck of a different chapter if you've only seen the show in the English Dub.

Anyways, stay classy.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	45. The Dangerous Game! Pinochimon!

Chapter 44! We're really winding this one down.

So, just saw Future last night... and I got to say, that and the rest of .tri can be summed up in the words of Loverboy. _"Loving every minute of it!"_ That was great, a few problems I have with it, but I can't complain at all. Looking forward to the 20th Anniversary film next year.

Shoutout to the reviews of **MadDogLucario96** and **God of the Challenge** , keep 'em coming guys.

Anyways, let's see how the Dark Masters will take the death of MetalSeadramon.

* * *

 **Chapter 44: The Dangerous Game! Pinochimon!**

 _Spiral Mountain Castle, Digital World. R-Day+3. Early Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The Dark Masters were quite surprised by the recent turn of events. They knew that the Chosen Children were dangerous and that if left to their own devices, they could be destroyed by them. However, the odds of that happening were quite miniscule; at least they were until MetalSeadramon ended up getting disemboweled from the inside.  
"I wasn't truly expecting this." Piemon paced the floor of the castle where Mugendramon and Pinochimon were watching with him. "I did warn MetalSeadramon not to truly underestimate these kids."  
"Guess he let his pride be his undoing." Pinochimon shrugged.  
"Still, the ocean receding was not something that I was expecting to happen… We'll just have to be more careful when it comes to killing these kids. Pinochimon, I believe it's you turn?"  
"What? Why me?"  
"Aren't they not walking into your forests?"  
"Yeah, I guess they are." Pinochimon gulped as he actually felt slightly nervous now. Before he thought himself invincible… now… "I guess this means it's my turn." He soon recovered from his fear and gave a sinister smirk.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We stood on the beach as we continued to watch the ocean part of Spiral Mountain continue to recede.  
"Spiral Mountain's ocean is returning to normal!" Koromon observed as the ocean disintegrated beside us leaving nothing but a black void.  
"Why?" Piyomon asked.  
"It must be because we beat MetalSeadramon, who ruled over its domain!" theorized Gomamon.  
"So the power of darkness controlling it has disappeared!" Koushiro concluded.  
"Our victory got rid of the darkness in this world!" Taichi excitedly said.  
"Then let's keep up this pace and defeat the rest of the Dark Masters!" Jou declared.  
"That way, peace will return to Earth!" Tailmon reminded.  
"And both worlds will be saved!" I added.  
"All right, let's go!" Taichi ordered.  
"Yeah!" We cheered.

"Wait!" Mimi interrupted. We looked over to see her and Palmon near four mounds of sand with four crosses sticking out of them.  
"What are you doing?" questioned Taichi.  
"Can't you tell?" Yamato sounded kinda of upset. "They're making graves."  
"Graves?"  
"There's Whamon's grave." Mimi pointed at the furthest one. "That one's Piccolomon's. That one's Chuumon's. And this one is for Wizarmon."  
"All of them were killed trying to protect us." Sora walked over to the grief-stricken girl.  
"They all died." Tailmon said. "You could even say they were sacrifices to our cause."  
"We have to work harder for their sakes, too!" Taichi was fired up. "The enemy needs to go down at all costs!"  
"I don't want to." Mimi muttered.  
"What did you say?"  
"I don't want any more of our friends to die! Why do we have to keep fighting?"

"What are you talking about? We can avenge their deaths by defeating the enemy!"  
"Stop it!" Mimi covered her ears, not wanting to hear anymore.  
"Taichi!" Yamato yelled. "Try to consider other people's feelings for a change!"  
"What do you mean?"  
"What you say is the right thing for us to do, I'll give you that. But knowing what the right thing to do is doesn't mean we can just push our feelings aside and be done with it!" Good grief, tempers are really flying right now.  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru spoke up.  
"We know in our heads that we should keep moving forward! But there are times when you want to stop and remember those we've lost, isn't there?"  
"If we keep stopping to do that, we'll never have enough time to save the world!" Taichi argued.  
"Everyone knows that! But…!"  
"Hey, stop this! Everyone's upset." Sora stepped in as Mimi begun to cry.  
"Don't cry, Mimi." Palmon tried to comfort her.  
"We're sitting ducks out here." Jou reminded us of the danger.  
"He's right, the Dark Masters won't take MetalSeadramon's death lying down… but I think we could at least stop for five minutes to catch our breath." I told the others.

Everyone slowly came around to agreeing, even Taichi would eventually conceded. I walked over to where Mimi was sitting on the ground. "Crosses?" I asked her.  
"Yeah, I'm a Lutheran, same as my parents though we mostly practice at home." She explained.  
"Ah, Church of Christ for me. Look, Mimi-kun, Taichi understands your pain, but right now… there will be a time to truly mourn for those we've lost, but not right now." She slowly wiped the tears from her face away before she finally came around, though I think deep down she's still feeling the same deep down. As everyone began to start moving over to the nearby forest, I quickly took a few more moments to stand by the graves. "Thank you… all of you for your sacrifice." I saluted. "Especially you, Piccolomon, you took on all four of the Dark Masters by yourself just to save us. You did good, Sarge." I removed my dog tags around my neck and placed them around the cross of his grave. "You did good."  
"Come on, Ross, let's move!" Guilmon called out. I gave one more salute and rejoined the others walking towards the forest.

We all began our solemn march through the forest, all deep in our own thoughts.  
 _"_ _It's not wrong of me to act this way, is it?"_ Taichi thought.  
 _"_ _Do we have no choice in the end but to keep moving on like this? Without ever having a place to rest?"_ Yamato was still looking upset.  
 _"_ _I wonder why Onii-chan is like this…"_ Takeru's eyes were just looking over to Yamato.  
 _"_ _At this rate, our feelings of unity will scatter. I have to do something."_ Koushiro feared.  
 _"_ _We've certainly hit quite a low point, haven't we? Even after our victory…"_ I believed.  
 _"_ _I need to find a place where we can take a break."_ Jou looked dead ahead.  
 _"_ _Everyone's tired."_ Sora observed.

"Onii-chan." Hikari finally said something before she suddenly stopped, of course, I didn't actually notice but Tailmon did.  
"What's the matter, Hikari?" She asked.  
"Did you just hear something?"  
"Like what?"  
"Something like a voice?"  
"A voice? No, not at all…"  
"Oh…"  
"We should catch up before we lose sight of the others."  
"Okay." The two of them rejoined us as we were still waiting for them.  
"Where were you?" Taichi questioned.  
"I thought I heard something… But it was just my imagination."

 _Pinochimon's Mansion, Digital World. R-Day+3. Early Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

As the others were currently stopped in the forest, they were unknowingly being observed on a TV in Pinochimon's mansion.  
 _"_ _It's dangerous, so don't wander off on your own."_ Taichi informed his little sister.  
 _"_ _Remember, there's strength in numbers."_ Ross reminded.  
 _"_ _Yeah, okay."_ nodded Hikari.  
"They should hurry up and get here… I'm getting tired of waiting for them." Pinochimon was running out of patience in terms of the pace of the Chosen Children.  
"Well, they are human children." A Kiwi-looking Digimon aptly named Kiwimon assure him.  
"Honestly, they move so slow." He pressed a button on his remote control and the group suddenly began to move much faster.  
"Eh? What's this?" Taichi questioned.  
"The scenery is running past us!" Hikari cried.  
"What's going on here?" Jou asked. Koushiro looked down to see the spot of ground was moving while the other sides of them were stationary.  
"The ground that we're standing on is moving us forward!" He informed.

"Look, I'm such a good host, aren't I?" Pinochimon asked. "When those kids get here…" He walked over to a toy chest that was filled with toys, though, considering who owned them, they were anything but benign. "What should we play with?" He began to dig through the chest. "Let's see now… Aha!" He suddenly came back up holding a revolver. "Check this out!" He got Kiwimon's attention. "A .44 Magnum. It's really destructive!" He then pulled out a .44 round. "And this is a dumdum bullet." He proceeded to load the bullet and spun the chamber and then aimed at Kiwimon. "When you get shot with this… You can see right through the inside of your stomach!"

"Jump off on this side!" Taichi shouted as to help get the kids out of their predicament. They all jumped but then that part of the forest began to move.  
"Now this one's moving!" Ross yelled.  
"Hey… Where do you think this is taking us?" Sora worried.  
"What other place is there?" Yamato answered. "The enemy must be waiting for us ahead!"  
"No way!" Takeru cried.  
"We can't just let ourselves fall right into enemy hands!" Jou feared.  
"Yeah…" Taichi muttered. "Hang on, I got another idea!"

Back at his mansion, Pinochimon was still rummaging through his toy chest, looking for more destructive tools.  
"They're late…" He bemoaned. He pulled out a grappler that attached its rubber grippers to Kiwimon's head. "Are they here yet?"  
"Pinochimon-sama. There's no sign of the children anywhere." The bird informed.  
"What?!" He dragged him away from the screen before running up to it. He saw that the kids were no longer on the screen. "Wh-Why?!" He pressed multiple buttons on his remote but still no sign. The reason for the disappearance was the kids were hiding in a tree.

"I wonder if one of the Dark Masters is here." Sora theorized.  
"It's very likely." Koushiro nodded.  
"We were walking straight towards the enemy all this time." Jou worried.  
"Better we engage them on our terms rather than them getting the jump on us." Ross insisted.  
"Yeah, we have to confront them some day. It's the same result either way!" Taichi reminded.  
"We all know that!" growled Yamato. "You didn't have to say that out loud, you know!"  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru tried to calm him down. "Stop fighting!"  
"Takeru…" His anger subsided a bit.  
"If we keep avoiding them, we'll just get slaughtered one day. Let's go find where the enemy is located!" Taichi was quite gung-ho for fighting the Dark Masters, even if some of the others were more hesitant.  
"Wait a second!"  
"Onii-chan!"

All of a sudden, Taichi just simply vanished into thin air.  
"Taichi disappeared!" Yamato exclaimed.  
"Onii-chan!" "Taichi!" Hikari and Koromon cried.  
"Where did he go?" Jou asked.  
"Why you asking me?" Ross said before he vanished as well.  
"Ah! Ross!" Guilmon shouted. Suddenly, another vanishing.  
"Mimi-chan disappeared, too!" alerted Sora.  
"Mimi, where are you?" Palmon called out before Sora and Koushiro vanished as well.  
"Sora?" "Koushiro-han is gone, too!" Their Digimon noticed. Jou and Hikari were the next to disappear.  
"Jou?" "Hikari!" Their Digimon cried as well.  
"Everyone disappeared!" Takeru stated.

"What the…?" Taichi said as he reappeared in a clearing with Mimi.  
"Ah, what the hell?" Ross shouted as he appeared by himself in a different clearing.  
"Wh-What happened?" Sora asked as she and Koushiro reappeared elsewhere while Koushiro was trying to balance himself on a log he appeared on.  
"Our enemy must be behind this!" Koushiro guessed.  
"It's cold…" Jou cried as he warped into a muddy puddle with Hikari near him.  
"Tailmon?" She looked around.

"They're all gone!" Yamato yelled as he and Takeru still remained in the trees.  
"Why? How did this happen?" The young blonde questioned.  
"I don't know. Our enemy must have done something to them. Takeru."  
"What?"  
"I'll do whatever it takes to protect you, so stay close to me."  
"Onii-chan… We were able to get this far because we worked as a team. So why am I the only one you keep giving special treatment to?" Yamato was surprised about what Takeru was saying to him.  
"Takeru…"  
"I've fought alongside the rest of you all this time! Right? Do you think I'm just a ball and chain? Am I unreliable? Is that why you keep saying you'll protect me?"  
"Takeru… That's not what I meant… I… What I wanted to say is…"  
"What?" He couldn't say a word after Takeru asked.

The reason why the others were vanishing and reappearing was thanks to Pinochimon. He had a place mat of the forest and on them were little dolls of the children that he was using as his form of a voodoo doll.  
"One, two, and three have disappeared~" He sang before he sighed. "Hey, Kiwimon, this is taking too long. I should just kill all of them."  
"Then you won't have anyone left to play with." Kiwimon reminded him.  
"That's true…" He pulled back on a slingshot and launched a metal ball that smacked the Jou doll in the stomach, and like the principles of a voodoo doll, the real Jou felt the same thing. He clutched his stomach in pain and fell over in the puddle.  
"Jou-san!" Hikari ran over to him. Back at the mansion, Pinochimon could only laugh at the mayhem he was causing. "Jou-san, are you okay?" Hikari asked.  
"My stomach just suddenly…" He choked out.  
"Does your stomach hurt?"  
"Something shot my stomach!" Hikari gasped in fear, thinking that something was going to come after her as well.

"I think I'll try this next." Pinochimon said. "Take this…" He picked up the Taichi doll which caused the real Taichi to vanish once more. "And this…" He picked up the Jou doll and the same thing happened. He then reversed the places of the dolls so Taichi was now with Hikari and Jou with Mimi.  
"Onii-chan!" Hikari ran over to her brother.  
"What's going on?!" Mimi shouted as Jou fell over.  
"Then I do this…" Pinochimon picked up the Hikari doll and replaced her with Sora. Hikari then ended up with Koushiro. Pinochimon then took the Ross doll and threw him into a tree on the mat which caused the real Ross to slam a tree hard. "Also, when I do this…" He had Taichi upside down much to Sora's shock.  
"T-Taichi!" He then hit the ground on his head.  
"Ouch!"

Soon, Yamato and Takeru became the next victims as Yamato vanished and was replaced by Koushiro before the same happened to Takeru and Mimi ended up in the tree.  
"Mimi-san!" exclaimed Koushiro.  
"Ugh, that hurt!" Ross moaned as he got up before getting thrown back into the tree again. "Ah, damn it!"  
"Hahahahah!" Takeru was floating in the air next to Jou as Pinochimon was tickling the Takeru doll before letting him go.  
"Are you okay, Takeru-kun?" Jou questioned before he was replaced by Yamato.  
"Onii-chan!"  
"Takeru." Yamato embraced his younger sibling.

"Where did everyone go?" Piyomon wondered.  
"It's no use waiting here." Koushiro said. "Let's climb down and search for them!"  
"Okay! I'll go look for Takeru!" Patamon flew off.  
"I'm staying here." sighed Mimi.  
"Koushiro! Wait here with Mimi!" Koromon suggested.  
"Okay." The computer genius nodded. "Please find the others."  
"Okay!" The Digimon hopped out of the tree in search for their human partners.

"I think I'll play with this one first." Pinochimon had Takeru and Yamato on the screen before he pointed at the younger boy. "He looks fun to pick on."  
"Shall I bring him here?" Kiwimon offered.  
"Nah. I'll go get him myself." He ran out of the room and slid down the fire pole before running out the front door of his mansion.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

"Takeru, are you okay?" Yamato asked me.  
"I think so…" I told him. "But I suddenly felt something tickling me and I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe something's wrong with me."  
"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Ugh, this is starting to get to be too much. I understand what Yamato is doing for me, trying to be a good big brother and protect me, but he doesn't need to do that as much anymore. Sure, when our adventures started, I needed him with me but I've been doing much better lately and I'm just as capable as the others.  
"Hey, stop worrying about me so much! I can take care of myself now!"  
"Takeru…" I could see he was kinda hurt by that, but it is the truth, I'm not the same little kid that cried every time I got separated from him.

"Let's play~" A voice sang from out in the woods.  
"Who's that?" I questioned.  
"Let's play~" The voice sang again.  
"Takeru, be careful!" warned Yamato.  
"Let's play~"  
"That voice is getting closer!" I noticed before two hands covered my eyes. I threw them off and turned to see Pinochimon doing a back flip right behind me.  
"Let's play!" Ah, so he was the voice.  
"You're…" I didn't get to finish as Yamato got in front of me to shield me.  
"Just try and lay a finger on Takeru again!" He threatened. "You won't get away with it!"

"So you're called Takeru. Hey, join me in a game of war." Huh?  
"Game?" I asked as I walked to Yamato's side. "Like… pretend?"  
"Yeah! Here, I'll let you use this!" He pulled out a black object and threw it to me.  
"It's heavy…" I tried to hold it before I dropped it on the ground and to my shock, it turns out the object was a real gun that shot out multiple bullets in rapid succession. "Th- This is a real gun! I'll die if I played with this thing!"  
"But of course!" The puppet completely blew off my concerns. "Dying for real is what makes the game fun! But don't worry! I won't let you die that easily. It'll be pretty boring if you died right away, you know!"  
"Takeru! Don't listen to what he's saying!" Yamato worried.  
"You stay out of this!" Pinochimon threw a red ball that exploded and wrapped around Yamato's body, completely immobilizing him in a cloth prison.  
"This is…!"  
"Onii-chan!" I cried as he fell over.

"Now, let's get going!" Pinochimon said.  
"No!" I told him. I'm not going anywhere with that crazy puppet!  
"You won't? It won't be any fun if you don't come, so… Maybe I'll just kill him instead." My eyes widened. "Well?" This isn't good. If I go with him, I'll probably end up getting hurt or more than likely killed. If I don't however, Yamato will just be killed right here and now.  
"You can't!"  
"Then you're coming?"  
"Takeru! Don't listen to him!" Yamato shouted.  
"You shut up!" The cloth extended over Yamato's mouth, silencing him. "Well, what do you say?"  
"I'll go." I declared as I picked up the gun. "I just have to follow you, right?"  
"That's what I like to hear!" I turned to look at Yamato before I followed along. Hopefully, the others would find me and rescue me before I get killed.

After a couple of minutes, we reached Pinochimon's home and I was at a complete disadvantage. I ended up dropping the gun because it was too heavy and found myself staring down the barrel of Pinochimon's gun.  
"There you are! Bang!" I jumped as I though he pulled the trigger before relaxing for a second as he didn't fire it. "Hurry up and run, this is getting boring!"  
"O-Okay!" I didn't really need to be told twice as I ran away.  
"Someone's coming. Wonder who it is." "It must be Pinochimon-sama's new toy." I heard voices from a room. I opened the door and found a mushroom and a flower Digimon looking at me.  
"U-Um…" I ran behind a bookcase in the room. "H-Hey, don't tell anyone I'm hiding here, okay?"

The door opened behind them and in walked Pinochimon.  
"Hey, did Takeru come in here?" He asked the two other Digimon.  
"Takeru?" The mushroom questioned. "Oh, if you mean that human boy, then he's hiding between those shelves." Ugh, can't trust anyone to keep their mouth shut!  
"Really? Okay! Come out with your hands up!" Thankfully I had the foresight to sneak away and I slowly started to move towards the door where hopefully I could find a way out of this place. "He's not here!"  
"This can't be!" "We just saw him!" The mushroom and the flower claimed.  
"Liars!" Pinochimon pulled the trigger and fired two shots that killed the two Digimon instantly! "Man, they make me so mad…" Okay, now this is probably the most freighted I've ever been in quite some time. I decided to make a break for it and ran for the door. "There you are!" I turned the corner and headed up the stairs. "Going upstairs, are we?"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Patamon was flying through the forest in search for any sign of Takeru before his search bared fruit and he managed to find Pinochimon's mansion.  
"What's a building doing out here?" He questioned. "Maybe Takeru is inside!" At the same time inside, Takeru had ran into Pinochimon's playroom and stepped on the remote that moved all the other kids in the forest back together.  
"What the heck is going on around here?!" Jou shouted. The Digimon soon arrived as well to rejoin their human partners.  
"Yamato!" Gabumon ran up to the incapacitated boy before he used his claws to slice the cloth off of him.  
"Takeru…! Takeru was taken by Pinochimon!" Yamato exclaimed.  
"What?" "Oh, shoot!" "That's bad!" The Yagami/McGlathery siblings answered.  
"We have to save him!" insisted Sora.  
"Where did Pinochimon and Takeru go?" Taichi asked.  
"I don't know!" Yamato grabbed his head in both fear and shame.  
"Get a hold of yourself, Yamato!"

"I'm sure the moving road we were on earlier leads to Pinochimon!" Koushiro guessed.  
"Yeah, that must be it!" Jou agreed.  
"Let's look for that road!" Koromon shouted.  
"Right! Let's go, guys!" ordered Taichi. However, their path was soon blocked by Kiwimon who appeared out of nowhere. "Who are you?"  
"Pinochimon-sama is enjoying his playtime right now. Please don't interfere."  
"Kiwimon." Koushiro read off his Digimon Analyzer. "An ancient Digimon who was once believed to be extinct. Although he is a bird-type Digimon, his wings have degenerated so he cannot fly. His special attack is Little Pecker."  
"Little Pecker!" The bird opened his mouth and small Chibi versions of itself fired out in rapid succession.  
"Koromon, evolve! AGUMON! Baby Flame!" "Magical Fire!" "Fireball!" "Petit Thunder!" "Petit Fire!" The partner Digimon launched their own respective attacks to destroy any projectiles that seek to harm their human friends.

Back at the mansion, Patamon flew into the playroom through the open window.  
"What's this?" He picked up the remote before he noticed the dolls on the floor. "What are these dolls for?" He knocked over the Jou doll and the real Jou on screen fell over as well.  
 _"_ _Oww!"  
_ _"What's wrong, Jou?"_ Gomamon asked.  
 _"_ _Someone pushed me out of nowhere!"  
_ _"Are you all right, Jou-san?"_ Hikari concerned.  
"This is…" Patamon was slowly starting to piece things together. "Then what's this?" He pressed a button on the remote. The screen changed angles and he saw the forest floor moving. Another press of the button and the ground stopped. "I have to let Takeru know about this!"

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

Must keep running! Must keep running! Mustn't let Pinochimon find me or else I'm dead! I ran through another hallway but that turned out to be a fatal mistake as Pinochimon came right up the stairs.  
"Found you!" He aimed and pulled the trigger. I backed up a few centimeters in order to keep my foot from getting blown off. He fired again, and again, and again. He placed four holes in the floor and forced me on backside as he aimed once more. "I think I'll start with your legs first." Wasn't he already aiming for those? "Huh?" He was confused as he pulled the trigger but all that he was getting was just a clicking noise. Yes! He ran out of bullets! "I'm out of bullets." He finally realized. "Got to put in new ones~" He started to dig around in his pants trying to find extra ones.  
 _"_ _He'll kill me at this rate!"_ I thought to myself. _"I have to do something! Something… Come on, Takeru! You got Patamon and Elecmon to stop fighting, so you can come up with something to keep Pinochimon from shooting you!"_ Suddenly, it hit me.

"This is no fun at all!" I sighed.  
"What?" Pinochimon was shocked about what I just said.  
"I'm sick of the same thing happening over and over! I didn't expect to find out that you're a boring person."  
"No one's ever told me that before!"  
"Really?" I acted surprised; after all, no one probably did tell him stuff like that because he'd probably kill them, just like he did with those two Digimon earlier. "It's because you don't have any friends, is it?" I goaded him.  
"I-I have friends." He looked away from me. Got ya!

"Then why don't you let me meet them?"  
"I'll introduce you guys one of these days."  
"Not one of these days, do it now!" I argued as I ran up to him.  
"Now… isn't a good time…"  
"I bet you don't have any real friends at all!" Careful, Takeru. Don't make one slip up in your performance or he'll figure everything out and kill you.  
"I do! I'll go get one of them right now, so wait here!" He then quickly ran back down the stairs.

"Takeru!" I turned to see a much welcomed sight.  
"Patamon!" He quickly led me into Pinochimon's playroom where he told me about his television and his remote that was controlling the forest and the dolls of us that he was using to make us vanish and hurt. I quickly picked up the forest place mat and started to rip it to shreds; he wasn't controlling us any longer! I then grabbed a hammer and smashed the remote and the television, ending his grip on the forest. "Come on, Patamon! Let's get out of here while we can!"  
"Right!" We slid down the fire pole that was in the room and ran out the front door to rejoin the others.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

Boy, this Kiwimon is tough! He just keeps launching those little birds and we keep having to blast them.  
"Hey! Where's Takeru?!" Yamato demanded. Kiwimon could only just laugh. "Answer me!"  
"Yamato! Just focus on attacking him for now!" Taichi advised.  
"As if you can understand how I feel!"  
"If we don't beat him, we won't be free to go rescue Takeru!"  
"No! We have to find out where Takeru is _before_ we beat him! Gabumon!"  
"Okay! Gabumon, warp-evolve!" However, nothing happened. We turned to Yamato to see his Digivice and Crest weren't glowing and he looked absolutely horrified.  
"It won't glow…" He muttered.  
"What's wrong, Yamato? I can't evolve!"  
"Little Pecker!" Kiwimon used our distraction to attack once more.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back at Pinochimon's mansion, he was busy in his workshop trying to make himself a friend using a football for the head and nailing a puppeteer cross to its back like his.  
"All done! No matter how you look at this thing, it's a friend!" He then ran back up the stairs, unaware that Takeru had bolted a while ago. "I've brought my friend! Look! Huh?" As Takeru and Patamon kept moving, they passed by two more Digimon, a penguin-peacock hybrid and another flower-like creature.  
"It's Pinochimon-sama's new toy." The flower Digimon known as Floramon observed.  
"We shouldn't get involved in this mess – de aru." The Digimon Delumon said.  
"Let's pretend we didn't see him."  
"Okay."

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

More of those Little Pecker projectiles! This bird is really driving me nuts! Several of them were heading right towards Sora but Piyomon was much quicker.  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" Birdramon held her wing out and the projectiles exploded harmlessly on her wing.  
"What?" Kiwimon questioned.  
"Meteor Wing!" The flames engulfed Kiwimon and there was nothing left of him after that.  
"Thank you, Birdramon!" Sora thanked as Birdramon devolved back to Piyomon.  
"Sora!"  
"Piyomon!"

"Takeru… Where's Takeru?" Yamato questioned. He then ran up to Sora. "Look at what you've done! Now we don't know where Takeru is!" He yelled. Taichi and I ran over to him and grabbed him to hold him back.  
"Hey! Calm down, Yamato!" "Don't take it out on Sora!" The two of us argued.  
"Hey!" A familiar voice yelled out. We turned to see Takeru and Patamon running right towards us.  
"Takeru-kun!" Sora cried.  
"Hey, you guys!"  
"Takeru!" Yamato shouted.

"I was able to protect myself all on my own this time!" Takeru told us as we all ran up to him.  
"You're amazing!" Hikari said.  
"Way to go, Rogue Five!" I gave him a thumbs up.  
"That's awesome, Takeru! You did great!" praised Taichi.  
"We were so worried about you!" Mimi admitted.  
"You sure grew up without us even realizing it!" Jou said what we were all thinking. He sure has grown quite a bit. Takeru rubbed the back of his head.  
"Stop it, guys, you're embarrassing me! I busted the weird gadgets that made the ground move and stuff, too!"  
"Really? That's great!"

Takeru placed his backpack on the ground and in it were dolls that looked exactly like us.  
"Everything's all right now!" Takeru assured us. "Pinochimon was manipulating us with these dolls. That probably explains why I kept getting thrown into a tree; these things were using us like puppets this whole time.  
"This is me?" Taichi questioned his doll. "I don't look anything like it!"  
"Well this one is dead on." I said about mine. "Maybe I should get a different look."  
"But yours looks cute, Mimi-chan." Sora talked to Mimi.  
"No way! I'm not this ugly! But… I'll keep it as a souvenir anyway!" The two girls laughed.  
"Show, show us~" Palmon and Piyomon begged.  
"Huh? Where's my brother?" Takeru asked.  
"I saw Yamato go over there just…" Jou pointed to the woods before he looked confused. "H-Huh…?" Oh, where the hell did he go now?

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Pinochimon looked through the remains of his torn up playroom. The place mat had been ripped to shreds, the remote crushed and the television smashed. Pinochimon had now realized he had been played like a fiddle by Takeru.  
"So he doesn't like playing with me, huh? I see. I get it." He darkly said to himself. Pinochimon was now done playing games.

From here on out, he would make the Chosen Children suffer…

* * *

And that was Chapter 44.

When I first found out about what the English Dub had cut, I was absolutely shocked. Especially considering Pinochimon named dropped the famous revolver that Det. 'Dirty Harry' Callahan played by Clint Eastwood in the **_Dirty Harry_** films. "I know what you're tinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful hand gun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?"

Anyways, see you guys for the next one. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	46. Jyureimon and the Forest of Doubt!

Chapter 45! Dang, I didn't realize how short this chapter was, could sworn there was more of a word count to it.

Anyways, shoutouts to **Devante1600** , **gostman28** , and **Twin Tails Speed** for your faves and follows.

And to **MadDogLucario96** for you review, oh come on, if five year old me could handle the guns in the previous episode, then I'm sure the rest of the US, Canada and Britain could handle it too... then again, I was shooting Nazis in Medal of Honor at the time, so...

Anyways, where has Yamato run off to?

* * *

 **Chapter 45: Jyureimon and the Forest of Doubt!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+3. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Our attention had quickly been changed from celebrating Takeru's bravery in the face of Pinochimon to trying to find where the hell Yamato and Gabumon vanished.  
"Yamato!" "Yamato-kun!" "Gabumon! Where are you?" We were all calling out for two of them but no response.  
"Onii-chan… What do you think happened to Yamato-san?" Hikari asked.  
"How should I know?" Taichi turned up his nose. "What the heck is up with him anyway?"  
"He could have been kidnapped by Pinochimon!" suggested Agumon.  
"Judging from his abrupt disappearance, that's a likely conclusion." Koushiro thought.  
"You sure? I think we would've maybe noticed if Pinochimon jumped us." I believed.  
"Ross may be right. Surely one of us must have seen something." Guilmon backed me up.  
"Yeah…" Jou got our attention. "I think Ross-kun is right."  
"Huh?" We questioned.  
"I… I noticed while Takeru-kun was talking that Yamato-kun simply just walked away from us."

"You saw Yamato leave?" Taichi inquired. He ran up to him and grabbed his arms. "Why didn't you stop him?"  
"Because… I thought he had to use the bushes or something… Sorry."  
"Well, never mind. At least we know now that he wasn't taken by Pinochimon."  
"But where exactly did he disappear to, then?" Agumon asked the question we all had on our mind.  
"Now that I think back, didn't Yamato-kun seem to be acting a little strange to you?" Sora reminded us of earlier when Yamato seemed to be struck by fear when he tried to get Gabumon to evolve.  
"Gabumon didn't look like he was able to evolve that time." Piyomon remembered.  
"But even so…" Palmon conversed with her.

I looked over to see Hikari had quickly turned around as if she had heard something.  
"What's the matter, Hikari?" Tailmon asked.  
"I heard a voice again." Both Taichi and I quickly ran up to her.  
"A voice? Was I Yamato's?" Taichi questioned.  
"Or something more sinister?" I questioned as well.  
"I don't hear anything."  
"Maybe you were hearing things."  
"He couldn't have gone that far." Koushiro walked up to us and got us back on the task of trying to find Yamato.  
"Yeah." Taichi agreed. "Let's go find him." We all started to march through the forest once more.  
"No… It wasn't Yamato-san's voice." Hikari muttered.  
"Hikari?" Tailmon asked once more, but she didn't answer her and just got to walking once more.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

After walking for what felt like an hour, I soon found myself near a small lake in the forest.  
"Yamato!" Gabumon shouted again as he kept trying to keep up with my pace. "What's wrong?" He also asked that same question once again. "Yamato, are you listening to me?" I am, but I just really don't want to talk. "Yamato…"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Unbeknownst to the two of them, they were being watched by Pinochimon and a large Cherry tree-like Digimon who were on the other side of the lake.  
"That guy is such a numbskull for leaving his pals behind." snickered Pinochimon. "It's like he's asking me to kill him."  
"As you say, sir." The tree responded in a deep, bass voice.  
"Since I know that he won't play with me anyway, I'll put an end to him just like he wants me to!"  
"Please wait, Pinochimon-sama! I have an idea. While you take care of the other children, leave this one to me, your loyal servant, Jyureimon." He laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

My legs were now screaming at me to at least give them a bit of a brake so I sat down by the river, and it was also this point where I thought maybe I should at least tell Gabumon what was going through my mind.  
"I… I've always been concerned over Takeru's well-being. I always have. During the divorce, I insisted that he would be better off with Mom than he would be with Dad, because he was so young, and I could take better care of myself whenever Dad had to work long. And now with all this… I kept thinking that… Takeru would never be able to take care of himself if I wasn't around to help him. But before I realized it, he'd grown up on me. He's grown up so much now that… he doesn't need me anymore. It's not just him. There's also Taichi, Ross, Sora, Mimi, Jou, and Koushiro… Ever since everyone came to the Digimon world, they've changed. They've all grown stronger."  
"Yeah." Gabumon agreed with my speech.

"But compared to them, look at me! I'm still the same person I always was. I haven't changed a bit!"  
"That's not true!" Gabumon tried to tell me. "You've also-"  
"What is wrong with me?" I interrupted him. "This isn't who I want to be!"  
"Yamato…"  
"I can't stay stuck like this! I have to change! I _have_ to grow stronger! And in order to make that happen… I can't stay with the others."

My whole rant was suddenly derailed when we heard the sound of something laughing in the woods.  
"Who's there?" I demanded. My answer came in the form of a large tree with a multiple roots that were its legs, multiple branches for arms and in one of them, a wooden cane.  
"My name is Jyureimon."  
"Jyureimon?"  
"You're one of Pinochimon's minions, aren't you?!" Gabumon ran out in front of me.  
"Now calm down." Hard to do that if you are in fact one of his servants. "I didn't come here to fight. I just wish to have someone to talk to." He laughed once more, but that sounded less like a joyful, kind laugh and more like a sinister kind.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

"The Digivice isn't reacting." Koushiro told us as we kept walking down along the path. "It doesn't seem to be functioning properly within these woods."  
"Well, it maybe because the Dark Masters twisted the whole world that the Digivices aren't working right." Ross suggested.  
"That seems like a pretty good theory, Ross-san."  
"I think we should take a break somewhere and wait for him." Tailmon said. "Everyone wants to be alone once in a while."  
"No, we have to find Yamato." Taichi ignored her advice. "We're useless unless all nine of us are together!"  
"But everyone is tired." Jou informed. "Why don't we sit down around here and rest our legs?"  
"Just because all nine of us should be together and fight… Everyone else has to die…" I heard Mimi say under her breath. She's still torn up from earlier; all of us are deep down. However, as I'm sure Taichi and Ross would both say something along the lines of having to keep going to prevent more from dying.  
"Mimi…" Palmon tried to comfort her.

"Yo!" A child-like voice called out from the forest. We all stopped and looked up to see Pinochimon sitting in a tree waiting for us.  
"Pinochimon!" Taichi alerted.  
"Hey, Takeru! I'm glad to see you again!"  
"Well, I'm not! I won't play with you anymore, so don't even bother asking!"  
"That's right!" Patamon chimed in.  
"Don't be stupid! Playtime is long over! Get them, Gerbemon!"  
"Yes, sir!" Three pink creatures showed up around the corner. They were in green trash cans like Oscar the Grouch while holding the lid in one of their hands which had number on it. They also had banana peels on their heads like a wig and carrying what looked to be some sort of rocket launcher in their other hand.

"Gerbemon! These Digimon are covered in filth. Their special attack is Poop Bazooka! Don't underestimate them; they're at the Perfect-Level!" warned Koushiro as he read off his Digimon Analyzer.  
"Launch the Poop Bazooka!" Gerbemon One ordered as the aimed right for us before firing their pink waste at us. All of us ducked and moved to avoid getting hit before running away; all of us except for Mimi.  
"Mimi!" Palmon called out towards Mimi who was just standing still. Mimi lifted her head and had a very angry look on her face.  
"I'm not scared of this stupid thing! Just leave us alone already!" She yelled as she actually caught one of the projectiles and threw it right back to them, much to the surprise of Pinochimon and the Gerbemon.  
"Mimi-chan, hurry up!" Sora ran up and dragged Mimi away.  
"O-Okay!" She said as they ran to rejoin us while our enemy was still dumbfounded.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Sorry, but I don't feel like sitting down to talk just to make you happy." I stated to Jyureimon. "Let's go." I told Gabumon and we started to walk only for one of Jyureimon's arms to extend in our way. "Hey, out of my way!"  
"Now, now, I told you to wait."  
"And I told you that I didn't want to talk!"  
"Tsk, tsk, you know you should show more respect for your elders." The tree chuckled again. "'What is wrong with me?' 'This isn't who I want to be!'" My eyes widened. "It is important for us to step back once in awhile and see who we've become in order to gain a better opinion of ourselves."  
"Were you eavesdropping on me?" I shouted. He laughed once more. I wish he'd stop doing that.  
"Whether I have or not is of no importance. There is nothing in this forest that I do not know about!"  
"Then… tell me! What should I do now?" If he wasn't going to allow me to walk away, then at least he could be useful and give me some answers.

"You ask _me_ what you should do?" He scoffed. "Children these days, always wanting the answers handed to them. They never try to come up with one for themselves. Therein lies the problem, if you ask me."  
"Yamato! You don't have to pay attention to this guy! Let's go!" Gabumon insisted.  
"Are you sure about that? If you want to get stronger, you must improve yourself!"  
"Improve myself?" I questioned.  
"Yes. But that is easier said than done. You will need the determination to carry it out."  
"Determination… I do have that. Tell me! How am I supposed to do that?"  
 _"Looks like he's taken the bait."_ Jyureimon thought to himself.

"You must defeat your rival!" He informed me.  
"Rival?" Another one of his arms pointed to the lake.  
"Take a look at yourself in that lake. There you will see the rival you must defeat."  
"The rival… I must defeat…" I slowly walked towards the lake's edge.  
"Yamato?" Gabumon walked towards me. I stared at the water for a few moments before something finally began to appear. An all too familiar silhouette that made both Gabumon and myself gasp.  
"Th-This is… Taichi!"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

We ran as fast as we could with those disgusting Gerbemon hot on our tail. I still can't believe that I caught one of their shots and threw it. I need to either wash this glove or burn it.  
"Don't think you can escape from us!" One of the Gerbemon taunted. We reached this clearing where we spilt up in multiple directions. "Take this!" The three of them stood back to back with each other and began spinning around, rapidly firing their bazookas trying to hit us no matter where we hid. Thankfully, we caught them off guard as our Digimon evolved into their Adult-Levels and they soon found themselves surrounded.  
"Meteor Wing!" "Mega Blaster!" "Harpoon Vulcan!" "Chiku-Chiku Bang Bang!" "Exhaust Flame!" "Mega Flame!" All the attacks hit and there was a large mushroom cloud of smoke where the Gerbemon trio stood. Once the smoke had cleared, all that was left was a crater.

"You did it!" Taichi cheered as we ran out of cover. Our celebration was short lived as Pinochimon just laughed at us from the tree-tops.  
"Did you really think those puny attacks could hurt them? Look behind you!" I turned to see one of the Gerbemon charging right towards me.  
"N-No…" That was all I could mutter as I was paralyzed with fear.  
"I've got you now!" He aimed his weapon at me.  
"No!" I screamed.  
"Togemon, super-evolve! LILIMON!" The shot came right for me but Lilimon quickly pushed me out of the way to avoid it before she charged at the Gerbemon. Another one appeared right behind the first one in an ambush.

"You fell for it!"  
"Oh no!" She cried before she managed to dodge both shots but the third one of them showed up from behind the other two.  
"There's still more of us!" Lilimon decided to take them on and stepped on the face of one of them before getting some distance from them.  
"She used me as a stepladder!"  
"Flower Cannon!" One shot of her attack and the Gerbemon that was hit disintegrated into data.  
"All right! Now!" Taichi yelled as the distraction that Lilimon cause gave time for the others to regroup.  
"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON! Giga Destroyer!"  
"Damn it!" The Gerbemon that was targeted cursed as he fired off a shot but his poop attack just bounced off the missile that MetalGreymon launched and was vaporized in the massive explosion that completely blinded all of us.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Yamato stared at the reflection in the water for almost five minutes with a look on his face that was a mixture of anger and confusion.  
"Taichi is…" He finally said something. "My rival…?" He stood up before he started to laugh hard. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I've never considered that of him, not even once!" Soon Jyureimon began to laugh as well.  
"That lake reflects whoever lies within the heart of the person who looks into it!" Yamato's eyes widened.  
"What?" He looked at the water again before turning away. "I won't fall for this!"  
"You must not avert your eyes. Face yourself properly! I know the truth. Although you are both Chosen Children, everything you and that boy Taichi stand for are complete opposites of each other." Yamato's memories drifted back to the fights and arguments the two of them had. "Whatever Taichi says or does bugs you so much that you can't help but react to it. That's how big of an existence Taichi has become within your heart. Unless you overcome those feelings, you will never be able to grow beyond who you are now. You must fight Taichi! Only when you free yourself of the hesitation within your heart will you become a new person!"

"He's lying! That's complete nonsense!" Gabumon shouted. "Taichi is your friend! Don't be fooled, Yamato! This must be a trap!" Gabumon's words broke through Yamato's thoughts.  
"Y-You're right! We're friends…" He then turned to the deceitful tree. "Friends don't fight each other!"  
"Friends, you say?" Jyureimon scoffed. "You don't even believe that such a thing really exists!" Yamato suddenly gasped. "You may lie about it to others, but you can't lie to yourself!" When Yamato couldn't say any counters, the tree Digimon just laughed once more. "I've hit the nail on the head, didn't I?"  
"Yamato!" Gabumon was trying desperately to keep his human partner's head clear and expel the lies that were being told.  
"Loyalty… Comrades… Friendship… Very convenient words. But in the end, they're all illusions! Nothing but a fleeting emotion. You know that you cannot allow yourself to be exploited for such things! Am I wrong, Yamato-kun?"

The fact that Yamato wasn't saying anything, Gabumon begun to fear that maybe the tree and the lake weren't exactly wrong about Yamato. Gabumon was still sure that Jyureimon was trying to exploit Yamato for Pinochimon's gain, but was he right about something?  
"Is that true, Yamato?"  
"I… I don't know."  
"Yamato…"  
"Listen. I will say this once more. If you want to improve yourself, you must fight Taichi! Unless you have the determination to do that, you will never be able to change yourself. Unless you face this trial, you will never become the person you want to be!"  
"I don't know what…" Yamato fell to his knees. "Damn it! What am I supposed to do?" He was practically on the brink of tears. He pulled out his Crest. "The Crest of Friendship… Why does someone like me have the Crest of Friendship?!"

"Yamato." Gabumon spoke up once again. "I understand, Yamato. Do what you think is right." Yamato was taken aback by those words.  
"Gabumon…"  
"Running full-speed ahead, like Taichi always does, can't be the answer to everything. I'm sure that there are things out there that only you can do, Yamato."  
"Things that only I can do?"  
"Let's look for them together. And in those times, if you need me to… I will fight for you, Yamato!"  
"Gabumon…"  
"Even if this means treating the others as my enemy… I will always be with you, Yamato!"  
"Gabumon…" Yamato's eyes filled with tears at the sheer loyalty Gabumon had for him. Yamato's Crest glowed once more upon those words.  
"Gabumon, warp-evolve! METALGARURUMON!"

"Let's go, Yamato!"  
"Yeah." Yamato climbed up on the mechanized wolf's back and the two of them rode off away from Jyureimon and the lake.  
"It went without a hitch!" The tree laughed, his plan had actually succeeded. _"Still, I'm surprised by the strength of the bond between them. Since Pinochimon-sama doesn't have a heart like they do, he may lose to them if he slips up."_ He thought to himself.  
 _"_ _Yamato. I know how you really feel. The truth is, you do want to believe… In your comrades… In your friends… In friendship."_ MetalGarurumon thought as the two of them went back to the others.

At a creek, Pinochimon was washing his face as the explosion had blew one of Gerbemon's attack into his face, hence why he was at the creek.  
"Damn it…" He muttered. "How dare they throw poop at me! Those guys are dead!"  
"Pinochimon-sama!" Jyureimon walked up to him. "My plan has worked perfectly!"  
"And what would that be?"  
"Making the two Ultimate-Levels, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, fight each other!" Pinochimon's mood brightened on that news.  
"That sounds like fun!"  
"If those two fight seriously, neither of them should come out of it unharmed! No… At best, they will both die by the other's hand! Once the strongest are out of the way, all you will need to do is pick off the weaklings."  
"Wow, I've gotta hurry and see this! That's one super battle that I don't wanna miss!" He began to run off.

"Please be careful around the Chosen Children!" Jyureimon warned. "If you make light of them, even you may lose, Pinochimon-sama!" Those words stopped Pinochimon in his tracks.  
"I… may lose?"  
"They have something that you don't, Pinochimon-sama!"  
"Something that I don't? Are you saying that there's something I'm missing?"  
"Yes, that would be…"  
"I'm not missing anything! Bullet Hammer!" He swung his hammer and incinerated Jyureimon into kindling. Even more ironic considering that Jyureimon used to be Pinochimon's previous form. "I don't care who you are, no one gets away with making fun of me!" He stated without any remorse of killing his most loyal servant. He continued to run on his way to see the titanic fight that was promised.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

The last Gerbemon in front of us threw down his launcher before he hopped out of his trash can.  
"All right, all right. I give up. Just kidding!" He pulled up his trash can and aimed it at us. Soon, high gusts of winds began to blow. "There's a black hole inside this thing! I'll suck all of you into it!" Everyone held onto whatever object they could in order to prevent being sucked to their death.  
"Damn it…" Taichi cursed. "He still had that trick up his sleeve!" Hikari's grip slipped and both her and Tailmon began flying towards the vortex. Thankfully, I was right beside to catch her.  
"I got ya!" I caught them both and Growmon braced the two of them… but I had to let go in order to save the both of them and now I was the one being sucked in.  
"Ross-chan!" "Ross!" "Ross!" Hikari, Growmon and Taichi screamed. I didn't think this is how I would go out, but I'm at least content with my decision if it means saving Hikari.

"Cocytus Breath!" I heard MetalGarurumon's attack being shouted and the winds suddenly stopped as I hit the ground. I turned to see Gerbemon frozen solid before he shattered to pieces. MetalGarurumon had struck him in the back while he wasn't looking. Out from behind a tree walked Yamato who had a pretty determined look on his face.  
"Yamato!" Sora exclaimed.  
"Hey, great timing! I owe ya one, man!" I thanked him for the save.  
"Yamato!" Taichi ran over to him as MetalGreymon devolved like the rest of our Digimon back to their Child-Levels. "Where were you this whole time?"  
"Thank you! That was a real close one! Thanks!" Agumon was running towards MetalGarurumon before his eyes glowed and fired an energy beam that hit the ground right next to him to our shock.

"W-Why?" Agumon questioned.  
"Agumon, fight me!" That was the only answer Agumon got from MetalGarurumon. "Evolve to Ultimate!"  
"No thanks! Why do I have to fight you?" MetalGarurumon launched two missiles that landed in front of Agumon as his form of a warning shot.  
"Yamato! Wh-What is this? What are you doing?!" Sora demanded an answer.  
"Yamato! Hurry up and stop him!" Taichi asked.  
"No. I won't." Yamato darkly stated.  
"You won't? You…!"  
"What the hell is wrong with you!? Call him off!" I yelled in Yamato's face but he said nothing.  
"I won't miss next time!" MetalGarurumon warned. "Now… hurry up and evolve to WarGreymon!"  
"You're being serious." Agumon muttered.  
"Onii-chan!" Takeru shouted but again, no answer. MetalGarurumon was staring down Agumon and Yamato was not doing anything to stop it, if anything, he was encouraging it.

What the hell has happened to the two of them…?

* * *

'Boy, that escalated quickly.' You said it, Mr. Burgundy.

So, the next chapter is gonna be the showdown between WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. Place your bets folks! Who will win?

Actually, don't. We all know how this ends. After all, why are you reading this if you haven't already seen the show. If that's the case, I'd advise you watch the original episode first before reading.

Anyways, see you guys later. Take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	47. Clash of the Ultimates!

Chapter 46! How we all doing folks?

Shoutouts to **Wolfissa** and **g** **ostman** **28** for your faves and follows.

And to the reviews, **MadDogLucario96** , I told you not to put money on the fight! How much did you lose? I'm down so much I'm about to be slaughter by a naked Tunisian sock merchant! (Blackadder reference.)

And to **Darkpheniox** , great reviews, don't worry, I've got big plans for 02. The story is similar right now but things will start becoming different later on. As for MimixRoss or Romi, you can get some answers by looking at the commissioned work of JubiaMaJo on DeviantArt.

Now, let's get on with the show.

* * *

 **Chapter 46: Clash of the Ultimates! WarGreymon vs MetalGarurumon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+3. Late Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

After spending the past few hours trying to look for Yamato and fighting for our lives against Pinochimon and the Gerbemon, things had really take a turn. Right now we were dealing with what should've have been relief on finding Yamato; only for him to turn on us and MetalGarurumon dead-set on fighting Agumon, and Yamato was fervently looking like he wanted the fight as well.

"Onii-chan…" Takeru muttered once more but still no response.  
"Q-Quit kidding around, Yamato!" Jou walked over to him. "We're all friends here, aren't we?"  
"Friends?" Yamato questioned.  
"That's right, friends! We're all Chosen Children, so that makes us friends!" Yamato merely scoffed at that idea.  
"Then here's a question. Who chose us?"  
"Well…" Like any of us could truly answer that.  
"If you don't even know that, what makes you think we're friends?"  
"You have a point there…"

"Jou. There's no use arguing with him." Taichi said. "Yamato is always like this."  
"Always like this?" Yamato repeated. "What the hell do you know about me anyway?!"  
"I know you! This is your way of throwing a tantrum, isn't it? Just because things aren't going the way you want them to!"  
"Well, aren't you amazing! I don't even have any idea what kind of person I am, but you do!"  
"So not knowing what kind of person you are gives you justification to attack us. Please tell us how that works!?" I rhetorically asked him.  
"Hey, stop this, all of you." Sora walked up to play peacekeeper.  
"You don't need to tell me that." Taichi told her. "Yamato's the one picking a fight with me." He turned and started to walk away. "I don't need to listen to this guy."  
"You've grown really mature, Taichi." Agumon tagged along as he usually did.

"That's not happening!" MetalGarurumon jumped right in the way of the two of them.  
"You're being a real pain, Yamato!" Taichi shouted.  
"Fight me!" Yamato demanded.  
"I told you, no! Man, you just don't get it, do you?"  
"You're the ones who don't understand!" MetalGarurumon said.  
"A-Are you serious?"  
"Taichi, stay back!" Agumon got in front of Taichi to protect him. MetalGarurumon took off and Agumon had no choice of what he did next. "Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" WarGreymon took to the skies and quickly preformed a light strike on MetalGarurumon, as he still didn't even want this fight to happen. "Stop this! I have no reason to fight you!" WarGreymon tried to reason.  
"You may not have one, but I do!" MetalGarurumon charged and struck WarGreymon in the chest before the two of them gained more altitude. Now the fight was getting more serious as WarGreymon threw a hard swing that slashed MetalGarurumon in the face before the wolf counter-attacked and bit WarGreymon on the unarmored part of his arm. The two then proceeded to throw more strikes on each other.

Back on the ground, Taichi angrily marched over to Yamato and he had the gall to have a really smug look on his face.  
"Now are you ready to settle the score?" Taichi didn't even hesitate to throw a left hook that I think even Yamato may not have been ready for.  
"Do you know why I just hit you?"  
"Yeah! You want us to fight, too, right?"  
"You moron!" Taichi now threw a right hook that made Yamato stumble back a few steps. I'm kinda glad Taichi is the one doing the fighting… because I'm pretty sure if I threw a punch, they wouldn't stop until Yamato's face would be unrecognizable.  
"Well, excuse me for being a moron!" Yamato finally hit Taichi with a right hook of his own and then charged forward with another punch. Soon the two were just devolving into nothing more that hard punches with little rhyme or rhythm.

"Stop it, you two!" Jou tried to be the responsible one and stop the fighting.  
"Please stop!" begged Koushiro.  
"Really! This is the last thing we need!" I shouted.  
"Taichi! Cool your head!" Sora insisted.  
"None of you get it, do you? This punch isn't coming from me! This is from Piccolomon!" Taichi yelled as he struck Yamato once more. "This one's from Chuumon!" Another punch. "And this is Whamon's!" Taichi threw yet another one and knocked Yamato to the ground. Yamato tried to get back up when Taichi kneeled down and grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Yamato. Do you really think the Digimon who died for us would want us to fight this senseless battle?" Taichi actually had tears in his eyes. Looks like hitting Yamato was actually making him feel terrible, it'd probably be the same if we were fighting. "Now do you understand?"  
"No, I don't!" Yamato upper-cutted Taichi that knocked him onto his backside. "I don't get it at all!" Yamato then just unleashed a storm of punches that Taichi just couldn't block. "Damn it. Damn it!" Yamato cursed with every punch.

The fight above was getting just as hectic as now the special attacks were getting used. MetalGarurumon launched multiple missiles that WarGreymon just barely dodged.  
"What should we do?" wondered Palmon.  
"We have to stop them…" Piyomon said. The next wave of missiles that were launched didn't miss this time and WarGreymon was hit.  
"But we're not strong enough to do that against their Ultimate-Level forms…" Tentomon informed.  
"Let them fight until they've tired themselves out." Tailmon suggested.  
"Hey! Don't you care about what happens to our friends?" Gomamon took offence to that suggestion.  
"Would it be enough to stop them if I did?"  
"Well…"  
"I'm somewhat inclined to agree with you, Tailmon, but I'm worried those two are going to do much worse than simply tire themselves out." Guilmon nervously admitted.  
"Maybe, but right now there's no other choice but to sit back and watch them." Tailmon walked away.  
"Damn it, you're just a newcomer so you know nothing…!" Gomamon shouted at her.  
"Stop! We don't need you guys to start fighting, too!" Tentomon interrupted.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Up in the trees, Pinochimon was greatly enjoying the Chosen Children falling apart. The plan couldn't have gone any better. Why risk fighting them at all when you could let them kill each other instead?  
"Man, they're such kids, fighting over a whole lot of nothing…" He laughed.  
"Brave Tornado!" WarGreymon spun forward and slammed into MetalGarurumon.  
"Do it! Do it! Keep it up! Then die, the both of you!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I swear, this fight is getting even more savage. Now Taichi is just sitting on top of Yamato and throwing a multitude of punches, it's amazing neither of them are bleeding yet.  
"Stop it, Onii-chan!" Takeru cried. "Fighting is bad!" Neither of them listened as the punches just kept coming. "Onii-chan…"  
"I've had enough!" Mimi started to run away.  
"Mimi-chan!" Sora ran over to her where Mimi had just crouched near a tree.  
"There's always fighting and more fighting… What do we get out of it in the end?! I don't want to deal with this anymore!"  
"Mimi-chan…"  
"Cocytus Breath!" "Gaia Force!" There was a massive explosion from above. I quickly looked around and found that Hikari had suddenly vanished. Not good.  
"All right! That's it! Guilmon, stay here and break up those two knuckleheads when the fight goes too far." I ordered.  
"When do I know when that is?"  
"When you see blood. I'm gonna go look for Hikari." I walked away to try to search her.

I finally found her in another clearing with Tailmon also joining me. All she was doing was looking up and staring at nothing in front of her.  
"Are you people our friends? Or our enemies?" She asked no one as there was nobody there.  
"Who is Hikari talking to?" I asked Tailmon if maybe she had an idea.  
"I don't know."  
"Okay. So you're not bad guys." Who's not the bad guy, Hikari? Oh, great, I think she's starting to lose it. Suddenly, she began to glow in a bright white light.  
"Hikari!" The two of us shouted as we ran towards her. She pulled out and then held up her Crest that exploded in a flash of light that engulfed everything as my whole world went white.

After a few moments, my eyes adjusted and I could now make out the others. The whole area around us was still a bright light, however.  
"Where are we?" "What's going on?" Both Taichi and Yamato questioned as it looked like the fight finally came to a stop… I hope.  
"Whenever there is light, naturally there will also be darkness. Darkness and light are like two sides of the same coin." Hikari said, though her voice sounded slightly different. It was if there was a slightly more mature tone to it. "But if the power of darkness grows larger…" Our shadows at our feet begun to grow until all the white light was engulfed in the darkness.  
"It's turned into night!" Patamon observed.  
"What is this place? Did we get sucked into another dimension?" asked Jou.  
"Wait guys! I see something!" Sora pointed ahead. The horizon in front of us slowly began to fade and revealed an all too familiar skyline.  
"This is… Hikarigaoka!" Taichi shouted.

Our surroundings flashed and we were now standing on the street looking up towards the sky where we could see Greymon and a large parrot frozen in time floating up to a bright light in the sky. The portal was the same one that Taichi and I went through when we first returned to the Digital World.  
"That bird is the one we saw four years ago!" Koushiro informed. He pulled out his Power Book and brought up his Digimon Analyzer. "Here it is. Parrotmon. He's the mysterious Digimon who appeared before us in Hikarigaoka. His special attack is Sonic Destroyer. He was a Perfect-Level."  
"Four years ago in your world, a Digiegg passed through a tear in the dimension by mistake." Hikari explained.  
"What are you talking about, Hikari?" Taichi asked as she was saying a lot of things that she shouldn't have even known.  
"It's not Hikari who's talking." Tailmon realized.  
"Someone is using Hikari-kun's body to speak to us." Koushiro clarified.  
"I am a being who wishes for balance in the Digimon world. I am Homeostasis."  
"Could you be the God of the Digimon world?" Whoa, Sora, let's be careful what we say here.  
"No, I am not." Oh, thank goodness. I didn't want to have a crisis of faith right now. "I am identical to the Digimon in that I am made up of internet data. But unlike the Digimon, we are unable to take form. In other words, we don't have a physical body. That is why I am borrowing this person's body to speak to you."

"Why Hikari?" I asked. "Is she aware of this?" Hikari smiled.  
"Yes, she is. She was perfectly happy to let me talk to you and observe all of this." Yep, that's Hikari, and that's good she knows what's going on. No need to explain to her. "As for why I chose her, she was the only one who could hear me. The truth is, I had wanted to talk to you ever since you first arrived on File Island."  
"But couldn't because Hikari-kun didn't come with us to summer camp, right?" Jou pieced things together.  
"Right." Suddenly, we all felt weightless and were soon flying over the streets of the district. We saw ahead seven beams of light shining from the sky and aimed at several different locations. Taichi quickly tracked the direction of one of the lights.

"That's… Hikari and me from four years ago!" Taichi and Hikari were on the street in the middle of the bridge rubble.  
"That one on the phone is me!" Jou pointed out to a small kid on a phone.  
"That's me!" Shoot, Mimi was living below Jou's apartment?  
"And me!" And Sora was beneath the both of them!  
"There I am!" I shouted as I saw a younger version of myself at the far end of the street at the apartment I was staying at that night with a pair of binoculars in my hands.  
"There's me and Onii-chan!" Takeru exclaimed as the two of them were living in the building opposite from the others. Young Yamato also had a pair of binoculars in his hands as well.  
"I'm there, too!" Koushiro wasn't living too far from the Ishida siblings. "But these lights…"  
"They are scanning everyone's data." Hikari informed.  
"But what for?" Yamato asked.  
"Allow me to explain everything from the very beginning." We all floated up to the whole in the sky and everything went white again.

We soon found ourselves in a strange chamber filled with machines.  
"Where… are we?" Sora asked.  
"This place looks vaguely familiar…" Koushiro looked around. We all walked around to see if we could find out more about this place.  
"I see something there!" Takeru quickly ran over to a strange glass panel and the rest of us followed suit. Inside the panel were nine eggs. "They're Digieggs!"  
"The Crests and Digivices are here, too!" Koromon observed. Sure enough, connected to the eggs were our Crests and Digivices. One of them was a red egg that had black triangles on it which had my Crest and Digivice with it. This was clearly Guilmon's egg. Our attention was interrupted when Jou started to panic and yell. We turned around to see guys in white robes with the hoods up walk past us.  
"Um, excuse us for the intrusion!" He apologized; clearly unaware these guys were merely just holograms. It was obvious they were holograms when they ignored him and were working on all the machinery.

"Hey, what gives? You could at least answer us!" Gomamon yelled at them. Am I the only one who can tell what's going on?  
"These people are holograms." Hikari told them. "We are transmitting images of what had occurred in the past into your minds." Koushiro noticed something and walked away from us with Tentomon.  
"This is the stone slate in the basement of Vamdemon's castle!"  
"The Gate is here, too!" Piyomon flew over to the door. "It's the same room!" Yep, it looks like almost nothing has changed. But how the heck did Vamdemon take control of this place?  
"But what are those people doing?" Jou questioned.  
"They are preparing for the moment when this world will be overrun by darkness." Hikari explained. "First, we created the Crest and Digivices out of the data that we scanned from you."  
"You made them?" asked Sora.

"So that means… You guys are the ones who chose us?" Taichi guessed as he walked up to Hikari.  
"Yes." Hikari nodded.  
"But why were we chosen?"  
"Both you and Hikari-san made the Digiegg that wandered into the real world evolve into Greymon, remember?"  
"No, he evolved on his own!"  
"There is no such thing as a spontaneous evolution. In other words, that evolution was not a mere coincidence. It was because of your presence there that allowed him to evolve into Greymon!"  
"But… we didn't do anything! We didn't even have a Digivice!"  
"If you think of the Digivice as merely a tool for evolution, then you are mistaken. The Digivice matches your special qualities with your Digimon, and enables them to evolve correctly. The same goes for your Crests. Is everyone aware of what their Crests mean?"

"Mine's Courage."  
"Mine is Love."  
"I've got Honor."  
"Purity."  
"Knowledge."  
"Sincerity."  
"Mine is the Crest of Hope."  
"Mine is…" Yamato hesitated.  
"Friendship, wasn't it?" Jou patted him on the back. Yamato just looked really ashamed right now.  
"And Hikari possess the Crest of Light. Right?" Taichi asked.

"Yes. Those are the most strongest qualities that each of you had four years ago. But what happens if you lose those qualities? You may end up misusing your Digimon for the wrong purposes. Also, if you used those wonderful qualities of yours for the wrong reasons…" Taichi had a realization.  
"Could it be…? Back then, I jumped in front of the enemy so I could force Greymon to super-evolve. But Greymon became SkullGreymon instead. That was the wrong kind of courage…"  
"Yes. You've finally realized it." Jou walked up to the two of them.  
"So this means you've put all of this work into bringing the best out of qualities that we'd already had in the first place." Yamato walked back to the panel and looked at Tsunomon's Digiegg and his Crest.  
"Yamato?" Tsunomon tried to get his attention.  
"I can understand why Taichi-san and Hikari-kun were chosen, but rest of us didn't make a Digimon evolve…" Koushiro pointed out.

"After examining everyone's data, we found that you share something in common with Taichi-san and Hikari-san. The meaning behind it is still a mystery to us…"  
"What are these Digieggs?" Takeru questioned. Wait, he hasn't figured that out?  
"You can't tell?" Well, in his defense, he's too short to be able to see the Crests and Digivices.  
"Could it be us?" Patamon believed.  
"Yes."  
"Which one is me?" Palmon was curious.  
"We can tell by looking at the mark on the Crests!" Tsunomon told her.  
"There's me!" "This one's mine!" Piyomon and Gomamon looked to their eggs.  
"However, The Dark Masters soon found out our plan and they immediately stepped in to bring it down." Hikari solemnly said.

Our attention was soon drawn to the doors of the chamber when were blown open and in marched a mechanized army. These two different suits of walking armor marched in to the horror of those poor souls that were working the place.  
"Easy, guys!" I told the others who were about to start running. "They're not real as well."  
"Correct. These are also holographic images." The brown suits of armor began firing missiles that struck many of the workers.  
"Damn it!" cursed Taichi. "Are you telling me that we can only stand here and watch, just because they're holograms?!"  
"That one is Guardromon." Koushiro read the Analyzer on the brown suit. "It's a Machine-type Digimon with impenetrable defense. Its special attack is Destruction Grenade." Another missile was launched and we could only sit back and watch the slaughter unfold.

"Here comes another one!" Yamato shouted. Around the corner came a silver suit of armor with a load of weapons on its back and a blue dome on top of its head.  
"Mechanorimon. A powered suit Digimon that can be maneuvered as a vehicle. Its special attack, Twinkle Beam, is shot from its linear lens." The lens was the red spot on its chest which fired a powerful beam that killed more of those workers.  
"AH! It's Piemon!" Jou screamed. Sure enough, that damned jester floated into the room. "D-Don't come any closer! Go away!" Jou waved his arms. Ugh, how many times do we need to tell him?  
"Don't worry!" Gomamon assured him.  
"She just told us that it's all a hologram." Sora reminded.

Piemon floated over to the glass panel and smashed it open.  
"He's going to steal the Crests!" Taichi shouted.  
"Can't we do something?" Mimi asked. Piemon picked up the Crests and considering how we got them, means that he got away with it. But how did the Digieggs escape?  
"Piemon! Keep your hands off them!" A voice shouted. We turned to see one of those robed men charging towards Piemon with a sword before his hood came down and you've got to be kidding me!  
"Gennai." Piemon said the man's name.  
"That's Gennai-san?" Takeru questioned.  
"That's not Gennai! That's Obi-Wan!" I exclaimed.  
"Jeez, you're right! Dead looker for Ewan McGregor!" Taichi agreed with me.

Young Gennai charged forward but Piemon jumped over his swing and then put some sort of black ball in his back that made Gennai cringe in pain. Another swing missed and a Mechanorimon went beside him and tried to use his Twinkle Beam at point blank range. Gennai dodged it and jumped on top where he used his sword to open the blue dome on top of the Digimon and hijacked a Bakemon that was driving the suit of armor.  
"Out of my way!" He cried. He used the suit to pick up the Digieggs and Digivices before using the rocket boosters on the back of Mechanorimon to fly out the ceiling of the chamber.  
"After him! Don't let him get away with those Digieggs!" Piemon ordered multiple Mechanorimon and Guardromon to follow along.  
"Let's follow them." Hikari said as we took off once again to watch the pursuit.

It was a hail storm of fire that Gennai had to fly through and his suit was taken a beating from all the missiles and beams that were launched. One real close one knocked one of the Digieggs lose and we all knew who fell to the ground.  
"That's me!" Tailmon exclaimed. "So that's why I grew up all alone." She sadly muttered.  
"But we're together now." Piyomon patted her on the head and Tailmon quickly cheered up.  
"You're right." The chase soon led to the familiar sight of File Island.  
"It's File Island!" Taichi pointed. When we landed, it was nothing like how we found it some time ago, it was experiencing it's version of the Ice Age. The Digieggs were all lying in the snow until it began to melt and was replaced by the same forest we first landed in.  
"And then… many, many years passed until…" Hikari told us. The Digieggs in front of us soon begun to shake before the cracked open.  
"I hatched!" Koromon cried out. The small hatched Digimon soon began hopping around with the Digivices in their mouths before they evolved and tossed them upwards into the sky.

"I remember… We were waiting all that time… For Taichi!"  
"For Yamato!"  
"For Sora!"  
"For Ross!"  
"For Jou!"  
"For Mimi!"  
"For Takeru!"  
"For Koushiro-han!"  
"Day after day, we'd sit patiently for their arrival… Until one day…" Koromon explained as the Digimon threw up the Digivices into the air once more and down they came… with us hanging on for dear life! The memories of our arrival all began to flood back in.

"So that's what happened." Taichi nodded as we now finally learned mostly everything about why we were chosen in the first place, the mystery of Tailmon's separation, the theft of the Crests, and the night of June 21st.  
"We don't know what the Dark Masters' final objective is or what must be done to save this world. All we can do for now is watch over the peace of the Digimon world and prepare a system that will repair damages before they take effect." Hikari explained.  
"What do you think we should do from here?"  
"I don't know. But I believe that, through using your own abilities, you will find the answer." The world began to vanish around us and soon replaced back with the forest where were last falling apart in. Hikari was now on the ground with her eyes closed as this Homeostasis was done talking to us.

"Hikari?" "Are you okay, Hikari?" Taichi and Tailmon asked.  
"Onii-chan… Tailmon."  
"You're okay!" "Thank goodness!"  
"Are you hurting anywhere?" I inquired.  
"No… I'm okay, Ross-chan."  
"Hikari, do you remember what happened to you earlier…" Taichi put his hands on her shoulders. She nodded.  
"Yes, Homeostasis explained how we became the Chosen Children, but she need me to be able to explain everything."  
"Yeah, that's right."

Taichi stood back up and looked over to Yamato.  
"Yamato. Now we know why we're the Chosen Children."  
"Yeah." He nodded.  
"Just as I'd thought… It looks like we're the only ones who can straighten out this world's distortions." He walked over to him with his hand out, hoping to get an apology handshake. "Yamato. Let's fight side by side again."  
"I'm sorry."  
"Onii-chan." Takeru worried.  
"Could I have been wrong this whole time?" Taichi questioned.  
"No… This was all my fault." He turned around and begun to walk away.  
"That's not what I meant! I was talking about how I've been acting up until now…"  
"It's not my place to say this after how I've behaved, but… I don't think there is ever a right or wrong way of doing things. It's simply that you have your path and I have mine. I don't have a clue what sort of path is waiting for me. I thought that if I fought you, I'd be able to find out what it was. Apologizing probably won't be enough for you to forgive me, but… I'm sorry."

"But… I want to find my own path." He turned around to look at us. "No, I have to! That's why I've decided to leave you guys and go on alone from here. Just me and Tsunomon."  
"Please reconsider!" Koushiro insisted. "After all, Yamato-san, your Crest… I mean, your best quality is…!"  
"Friendship, I know. But friendship is such a flakey word, don't you think? No… Maybe it just sounds that way to me because I don't know what true friendship really is."  
"H-Hey… How about this? We break into two groups and go on from there." Sora suggested.  
"Sorry, but I need to do this alone."  
"Oh… But I know you'll be fine, Yamato. I believe in you."  
"Onii-chan… What should I do without you?" Takeru asked.  
"You can take care of yourself now."  
"But…"  
"You're with us, Takeru-kun." Sora placed her hands on his shoulders. "Yamato has something he wants to think about on his own. Let him go."  
"Okay."  
"Thanks. Bye." Yamato then turned and walked away from us. I hope he figures things out soon. We're gonna need him in the end.

"Well, we should get going too." Taichi pointed out. He's right. The Dark Masters are still out there and we need to deal with them. We started to walk the opposite path from Yamato's. "Let's win those battles and fix the distortions in the Digimon world!"  
"Mimi-chan?" Sora questioned as she noticed Mimi stopped walking.  
"I'm sorry, Sora-san. I'm not going." What?!  
"Not going? You want to stay here?"  
"Yeah. Others may get hurt and die again… I don't want to see that anymore."  
"Then I'll stay with you." I walked over to her.  
"Ross-san, no." She told me.  
"Don't you remember what I said to you at TonosamaGekomon's palace? 'I'll be there for you at your side'."  
"If I wanted you to, you also said that. Ross-san… where I wanna go, you can't follow. We're just different on what we want. I don't want to see anymore fighting, you live for it. I know you want to keep going and do whatever it takes to stop the Dark Masters and so do I but… I just can't."  
"Mimi-kun…"  
"And please, don't make it a decision of staying with me or going with your family." She was right. I wanna see this through to the end and staying out of the fight isn't going to help. I sighed.

"Well, someone should stay with you." I finally spoke again.  
"I'll stay with her." Jou volunteered.  
"Jou-san!" Koushiro seemed just as surprised to hear this from him.  
"Ross-kun is right. It's dangerous for Mimi-chan to be here on her own. I'll do my best to convince her to come back, and after I've done that, we'll join up with you guys again. Is that okay?"  
"Yeah." Taichi nodded. "We're counting on you, Jou."  
"Okay." He ran over to Mimi.  
"Jou, wait for me!" Gomamon followed as I walked over to rejoin Taichi and the main group.  
"What was that all about?" He asked me.  
"I'd like to keep that to myself, if that's okay." He nodded in understanding with my answer.

"Everyone is being separated again…" Patamon moaned.  
"And just when all nine of us got together, too…" Piyomon sadly added.  
"You guys don't get it, do you?" Tailmon spoke to the both of them. "The roads we take are different… But the place we'll end up in is the same. We'll get there, no matter how thorny our paths get." She smiled. That was a poem if I've ever heard one. She's right, somewhere down the road we'll meet again. We all parted our ways and got to walking once more.

Hopefully, we'll all be back together before the end…

* * *

And that was Chapter 46.

Now I've got some tests coming up so the next chapter maybe uploaded next weekend.

I'll leave you with this... I'm not crazy, Young Gennai looks like animated Ewen McGregor as Obi-Wan in Phantom Menace!

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	48. MetalEtemon's Counterattack!

Chapter 47. Holy crap, I could write this fast! I need to be less distracted with my free time! Curse you, ADHD.

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his continual reviews. Thanks a lot man!

Oh, by the way, this story has just hit 10,000 views! Thank you all so much for taking the time to take a look at my passion piece!

Anyways, nothing much to say but let's get an unwelcomed visit from our favorite Elvis impersonator.

* * *

 **Chapter 47: MetalEtemon's Counterattack!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+4. Morning.  
_ _P.O.V – Third Person_

Morning had broken out all along Pinochimon's forest on Spiral Mountain. The Chosen Children had gone their separate paths the day before and were now just wandering around. At the same time, there was an explosion of energy in one part of the forest. The reason was Ogremon, the same one that allied with Devimon on File Island and tried to destroy the Chosen Children, was being chased by Pinochimon's minions. The small tree trunk like creatures known as Woodmon was trying to swarm the ogre. He used his clubs and fist to cut down several of them but they just kept coming.  
"Don't you underestimate my power!" He shouted. "Still, even a swarm like this is too many for me to fight at once…" He muttered to himself. "I'll just have to fend them off and keep running! Haouken!" More Woodmon were stuck down and Ogremon began running once more with the swarm keeping pace.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

Gomamon took a loud bite into the apple he was having for breakfast while the rest of us were enjoying the other fruits we had found in the forest.  
"This is delicious!" He said. Guess we can consider ourselves lucky that when the Dark Masters twisted the world, the food was still more or less edible and not dead or poisonous.  
"Um, Jou-senpai?" Mimi asked me.  
"What?"  
"I'm sorry… For making you indulge my selfishness."  
"Selfishness? I don't think you're being selfish at all! What you say is absolutely right, Mimi-kun. Fighting only gives way to more fighting, and that never solves anything." I wasn't lying, she was right, but the problem is we really have to fight in order for us to save the world. It's an unfortunate truth and one we really couldn't avoid, so I'm hopeful that I can convince Mimi and we can rejoin the others.

"But…" I looked up to the sky and looked at Hokkaido again and thought about what Shin had told me back at Big Sight. "No, never mind."  
"Jou?" Gomamon questioned me.  
"What?"  
"You should share with us if you have something to say." I got up.  
"That's not how it goes, Gomamon. Even if there is something you want to say, there are times when it's better off that you don't say it."  
"Yeah, that might be true. No, it's gotta be!"  
"Oh, you think so too, Gomamon?"

Our conversation got interrupted when we saw a giant black vortex in the sky and it didn't look remotely good. Was this something from the Dark Masters or something entirely different?  
"What is that?" Palmon pointed. The vortex vanished and in its place was a burning red ball, no, it was more than that.  
"That's a meteor." I explained. I was right as the thing suddenly made a rapid decent towards the ground, practically right near our position! "It's heading towards us!" We started to run as fast as we could.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

For Ogremon, his luck had essentially run out. He now found himself surrounded by the Woodmon on one side, and a deep chasm that he could not jump across to his back.  
"Crap! I can't afford to die here! Not until I've beaten Leomon…" He looked up and saw the meteor that Jou and Mimi spotted heading right for him and the Woodmon. "Wh-What the hell is that?!" The meteor crashed into the ground, crushing the Woodmon and blasting him off the ridge into the chasm below. The impact of the meteor was powerful, that the other Chosen Children could feel it as well.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"Something exploded!" Piyomon cried as they all clutched to a few trees.  
"Wh-What happened?" Taichi questioned.  
"Was that an earthquake?" Koushiro guessed.  
"No, it was too sudden for earthquake." dismissed Ross.  
"A meteor!" Tentomon shouted as he flew back down. "And a huge meteor at that! It came crashing down here!"  
"A meteor?" Guilmon repeated.  
"Enough with the meteor. Let's go back to what we were talking about." I reminded the others.  
"Yeah. I say we go to Pinochimon's mansion." Takeru insisted.  
"We can take you there." informed Patamon.  
"Instead of waiting, we should make the first move and challenge him to a battle." Koushiro said.  
"Or better yet, get the drop on him while he ain't looking and turn him into kindling." Ross had a smirk on his face, like he could already imagine the look on Pinochimon's face if we did that to him.  
"We don't have time to waste in the first place. If we don't hurry, it'll end up being too late for both our world and yours." Tailmon pointed out what was at stake once more.  
"Onii-chan, let's go!" Hikari agreed with the others.

"W-Wait a minute, guys! Pinochimon is an Ultimate-Level, remember? We can't win that easily against him!" I gave my concerns to the others.  
"But we have to fight him one day, don't we?" Takeru was right, but still…  
"That's right!" Patamon chimed in.  
"Why don't we take a vote?" Koushiro suggested. "All who think we should go to Pinochimon's mansion!" Koushiro, Ross, Hikari, and Takeru all raised their hands along with their Digimon. Taichi was still looking deep in thought. "Taichi-san?"  
"Taichi." I tried to get his attention.  
 _"_ _What would Yamato do at a time like this? What would he say?"_ Taichi thought.  
"Taichi-san?" Takeru pulled on his shirt.  
 _"_ _If something were to happen to Takeru, how would I be able to face Yamato?"  
_ "Onii-chan?" Taichi finally came back to reality when Hikari spoke up.  
"Are we going? Or are we not?" Tentomon asked.  
"It's your call, buddy." Ross gave his support. You won't go, right, Taichi? It's too dangerous right now.

"All right, I got it. Why don't we take a look at the place before we figure things out?"  
"Scout it out? Smart, seems like the stuff I've been teaching you is finally paying off." Ross teased as Taichi lightly slugged him in the shoulder.  
"Follow me, everyone." Takeru started to run ahead while I stood still.  
"Sora?" Taichi noticed that I wasn't moving.  
"I guess there's no other choice, if that's what you've decided." I said to him.  
"That's not what I meant! If we find any danger there, Koromon and I will stop the enemy's attacks. I want you and Ross to lead the others to safety while we distract him."  
"Are you sure Ross will listen to you? The last time you tried to hold our enemies off…"  
"Etemon was different, I'm sure he'd help you if I told him to go along with you."  
"I don't know…"  
"I'm counting on you." I sighed.  
"Okay. But just to let you know, I don't approve of any of this."  
"And we wouldn't have it any other way." He smiled before we ran to rejoin the others.

 _P.O.V – Jou Kido_

I was wrong about that meteor heading towards us but the thing still landed not too far away so we decided to at least check it out.  
"Over there! The meteor fell on top of that cliff."  
"But where did it come from?" Mimi asked.  
"Maybe from Earth." Palmon suggested. Gomamon started to act weird. "What's wrong?"  
"I smell something…" Oh, he was sniffing for something. "Over there!"  
"W-Wait!" I shouted as we followed our two Digimon.  
"Be careful! It could be a trap!" Mimi warned.

We kept running until we came across a clearing that had a pilled of broken trees on the ground and there was someone buried underneath those pile of branches.  
"There's someone lying injured on the ground!" Gomamon shouted.  
"I wonder how that happened." Palmon was curious about the predicament this poor person got involved in. She ran up to the injured party. "Are you okay? Hang in there!" She knocked away some of the branches to reveal an all too familiar green Digimon. "It's Ogremon! He's not moving… Maybe he's dead." That idea was wrong as Ogremon started to twitch and move causing all of us to jump back in fear. If that's the same one from File Island, we need to get running fast.  
"He looks hurt." Mimi observed. He was covered in all sorts of bruises and had a pretty nasty gash on his forehead which had been bleeding.  
"Hey, what should we do?" Gomamon asked for our next move.  
"We'll be in big trouble if he attacked us again like he did on File Island…" I cautiously advised. The memories of being on that bed in the sea when he tried to bash me with his club were just making me all the more determined not to give him a hand.

"It's best if we ignored him." I concluded. Heartless, perhaps, but we can't be sure this guy will kill us first chance he gets. Mimi shoved me out of the way and ran forward to him. "Mimi-kun! What are you doing?" She's not thinking of helping him, is she? She pulled out a handkerchief and started to pat it down on his forehead gash, trying to clear away some of the blood.  
"Those wounds look terrible." She said to herself. Ogremon twitched again which made her step back again as he opened his eyes.  
"Y-You…! A Chosen Child!"  
"No! Don't move! You'll open your wounds!" He seemed to actually take her advice and lowered his head back down again. "Palmon, look for medicinal herbs. Gomamon, find some water!"  
"Okay!" Both Digimon nodded as they went off on their orders.  
"Jou-senpai, could you…?" I didn't really like doing this, but if Mimi wants to help him, then I guess I've got to throw my weight into this as well.  
"O-Okay, I got it! Allow me to treat his wounds. I am a doctor's son, after all."  
"You guys…" Ogremon coughed up.  
"Stay still!" ordered Mimi.  
"Yes, ma'am…"

"That hurts!" Ogremon shouted as we were slowly patching him up. Gomamon and Palmon had returned with the items that Mimi asked for and we put them to use.  
"These herbs must sting a lot." Mimi sympathized.  
"Your arm might be broken, so I'll put it in a sling." I told him. It was hard to tell but better be on the side of caution. I opened my duffel bag and grabbed a roll of toilet paper. "Um… I guess this will work." I grabbed some sticks and rolled the paper that made a stable sling.  
"Why toilet paper?"  
"I'm substituting them for bandages. Before we returned to this world, I thought I should bring stuff that would be useful to us. This was all I could think of, though. But when you need to use it like this… Look, it's a big help, isn't it? All set!"  
"Ouch!" Ogremon winced.  
"Jou-senpai, you're so smart!" praised Mimi.

"Why? Why are you helping me?" asked Ogremon. "I tried to kill you guys on File Island. It won't surprise anyone if you killed me right now."  
"Again with killing and not killing… Don't you know any other words that are more tasteful than that?" Mimi put her hands on her hips.  
"More tasteful? U-Um? Er…"  
"No need to strain yourself. Well, take care." We turned around and started to walk away.  
"N-No… W-Wait! Th… Th… Thank you!" Was it really that much of a struggle for him to say thank you?  
"Not at all. You're welcome." Ogremon actually had tears in his eyes. Wow.  
"Ogremon is crying!" Gomamon teased.  
"This must be what people call 'crocodile tears.'" I said.  
"I just have some dirt in my eyes!" He tried to deny that he was crying because of our act of kindness.

"Let's play!" A sing-song voice called out and it was one we were dreading. Up in the trees was the last Digimon we wanted to run into. "Let's play 'Riddle me this!'"  
"Pinochimon!" I shouted.  
"What do you mean, 'Riddle me this?'" Gomamon questioned.  
"What am I missing?"  
"You want to know what you're missing?"  
"Hurry up and tell me." Pinochimon let loose a stream of bullets from his hammer that made Gomamon back off.  
"Hey, wait!"  
"If you don't answer the riddle, I'll kill you." Even if knew what the riddle was and even if we did answer it, he'd probably kill us anyways.  
"Mimi, let me evolve!" requested Palmon.  
"But…!" Sounds like Mimi was now completely hesitant to let Palmon fight as she was probably worried about Palmon getting hurt or worse.  
 _"_ _I can't… If Togemon got killed…"_ Mimi thought to herself.

Well, if Mimi won't fight, then I guess it's up to me!  
"Gomamon! Evolve!" I ordered.  
"Okay! Gomamon, evolve! IKKAUKMON! Harpoon Vulcan!" The attack only blasted the tree as Pinochimon jumped out of the way before he just started laughing. Ikkakumon stood no chance, time to go further, at least in hopes of escaping that sadistic puppet. "Ikkakumon, super-evolve! ZUDOMON!"  
"Bullet Hammer!"  
"Hammer Spark!" The two charged at each other and their hammers collided but it was clear who won the fight when Zudomon fell over and devolved back into Gomamon.  
"I'm not hearing an answer." He's still on about that riddle?! "Then I guess I'll have to kill you." The whole fight was suddenly interrupted when the sound of someone doing the Tarzan noise filled the air.

"Who are you?" Pinochimon questioned the Digimon that was making the noise while swinging on a vine and to all of our shock; it was the last Digimon we thought we'd ever see.  
"Don't you know a superstar when you see one? Now applause, applause! It's been a long time, Chosen Children."  
"You're… Etemon!" I shouted. He looked much different now. He was now completely covered in metal and had the word 'Stronger' on his chest in kanji.  
"Etemon is old news. Now I've been reborn into the new and improved MetalEtemon!" Great, if Etemon was bad before then MetalEtemon was even worse for us. At least if he just came back as his old self, we could easily take him with Zudomon but we can't have anything easy, now can we?  
"I thought you died!" Palmon questioned why we were even talking to him since we had killed him a while back.  
"Yeah, MetalGreymon and MegaloGrowmon blew you to bits! How did you come back?" Gomamon demanded an answer.

"Thank you for asking." Suddenly, music started to play. Oh, no. Tell me he's not gonna… _"~It's a tale that makes both its listeners and storyteller weep with emotion!~"_ He is. "After my battle with MetalGreymon and MegaloGrowmon, you are all aware that I was sucked into a black hole, yes?" Yeah, but so was Taichi and Ross and they ended up back in Odaiba. "Within the dark realms of hell, my body was broken down and regenerated over and over again in an endless cycle. But I survived without dying completely!" Pity. "Know why? Because the only thought that ran through my mind was that I would get my revenge on the Chosen Children for making me suffer like this! After I was finally reborn into MetalEtemon, I have returned, on this very day, to this world! _~So I can get my revenge on you~ My deep and utter hate allowed me to return from the underworld~"_ He finally stopped singing.

"Thank god it's over." Pinochimon muttered.  
"There's still more where that came from, little boy." He jumped down onto the forest floor.  
"Who are you calling a little boy?!"  
"Banana Slip!" He pulled out a banana and like the name said, Pinochimon stepped on it and slipped.  
"What's wrong, little boy?"  
"Stop calling me that!" He swung his mallet that hit MetalEtemon right on his shin causing him to hop in pain.  
"How dare you!" He tried to tackle him but Pinochimon jumped over him. Maybe MetalEtemon is actually a bit of a blessing in disguise. I'm sure yesterday Pinochimon probably saw MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon fight and wanted the two of them to kill each other. Well, it's the opposite today, maybe these two can kill each other and make our jobs that much easier.

"Drill Nose!"  
"Hekoki Attack!" Okay, that was something I think none of us wanted to see. What just happened a second ago is gonna stay with me for a while. Pinochimon got back up after MetalEtemon's disgusting attack and used his mallet to fire multiple bolts but MetalEtemon held his hand up and the bolts bounced off of it and flew all over the place. "Number One Punch!" He swung his fist hard and smashed Pinochimon in the face.  
"Now you've done it!"  
"Little children should behave like little children!" The two just kept their fighting going, long enough for us to have a chance to escape.  
"Run now while they're distracted!" I pushed Mimi to get moving.  
"Good idea!" Ogremon agreed and the five of us ran away. Pinochimon jumped in front of a tree and poked his tongue at MetalEtemon begging him to try to punch him. The punch came but Pinochimon jumped out of the way and the tree that was punched collapsed on the monkey.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

"So that's Pinochimon's mansion." Taichi observed with his mini-telescope.  
"Defenses?" Ross asked.  
"Not much. He has two guards."  
"Eh, I think there's probably more waiting for us inside."  
"Hey, Koushiro, look up the guards for us, will ya?" Taichi handed me his Digivice.  
"Okay." I took his Digivice and plugged it to the adapter and got the info on the two Digimon that he spotted. "Let's see, this flower like one is called Floramon. A Child-Level plant Digimon who has evolved into the shape of a reptile. Her special attack is Allergy Shower. The other one that looks like a penguin mixed with a peacock is Delumon. He's a Perfect-Level that looks like a bird at first glance, but he is a strange Digimon with vegetation growing out of his back. His special attack is Royal Nuts."  
"He's a Perfect-Level?"  
"Yes."  
"But I doubt we'll have a problem beating these two." Tentomon believed. "Let's go on ahead, everyone."

"Wait!" Taichi stopped him. "Ross makes a good point; there may be more of them inside. I'll take a look around first, so I want the rest of you to wait here."  
"Then I'll come with you!" Takeru was insisting on coming along. "Patamon and I are the only ones who know how things look inside."  
"Right!" Patamon chimed in.  
"I see your point, but…"  
"Are you still going to treat me like a little kid?"  
"No…"  
"Let's all go together, Onii-chan." Hikari suggested.  
"I agree with Hikari-kun!" I raised my hand. "It won't be scary if we all went together!"  
"And we'd have a better chance if we all go." Ross added.  
"What do you say, Taichi?" Koromon asked.  
"All right. Let's all go, guys!" Taichi decided.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"What the heck… is this?" MetalEtemon questioned as he kept hitting himself. "Ouch! Ow ow ow!" The reason for his sudden loss of control was due to Pinochimon puppeting him like he usually did with his opponents.  
"Take that!" Pinochimon laughed at the misery he was causing for the singing monkey.  
"Stop! It tickles!" Now he was making him tickle himself.  
"Now while I have him occupied, I'll get the children… Huh?" He finally discovered that Jou and Mimi's group had bolted while the two Ultimates were busy fighting each other. "They're gone!"  
"What?!" MetalEtemon tore away the strings that were controlling him.  
"This is your fault!"  
"No, it's yours!" MetalEtemon tried to tackle him again but was countered by the puppet.  
"I quit." Pinochimon sighed.  
"What happened to you?"  
"Got bored. I'm going home." He started to walk back towards his mansion.  
"What a disgusting little brat! But thankfully he's not around to interfere with me anymore." He ran off towards a different direction. "Just wait, children! You'll regret having made light of me!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Koromon, evolve! AGUMON!"  
"Petit Thunder!" "Fireball!" "Baby Flame!" The three Digimon quickly got to the drop on the guards and left them smoking.  
"What do you guys think you're doing –de aru?!" Delumon angrily demanded as he was still covered in soot.  
"I think that's obvious! You're Pinochimon's minions, aren't you?" Agumon answered.  
"Absolutely not –de aru!" Boy this guy likes to say de aru.  
"We don't work for him at all." Floramon explained.  
"Then what are you?" Takeru ran up to them.  
"I don't know…"  
"He thinks of us as his playmates –de aru, but we don't share the same feelings –de aru! Don't tell him I said this –de aru… But the truth is, we really hate Pinochimon –de aru!  
"Oh, yeah. I remember now –de aru." Oh, don't you start too, Takeru. "Pinochimon doesn't have any friends –de aru."  
"Yeah! Yeah!" Patamon confirmed.

"Really?" Hikari questioned. "That makes Pinochimon a really sad guy –de aru then."  
"You don't have to copy him." Tailmon shared my feelings about the –de aru thing. Hikari just laughed.  
"Besides, who would really want to be friends with such a sick, sadistic Digimon like Pinochimon –de aru…? Ah, dang it! Now I'm doing it too!" I moaned as the others laughed at my mistake.  
"Well? Is Pinochimon inside?" Taichi asked.  
"No –de aru." Delumon informed. "He's out –de aru."  
"What should we do, Taichi?" inquired Agumon.  
"I say we sneak inside Pinochimon's mansion."  
"Delumon, could you take us there –de aru?" Takeru requested.  
"Very well –de aru. Follow me –de aru." The two guards started to walk to the door before Delumon turned around. "Ah, let me ask you one favor first –de aru. Please keep this a secret from Pinochimon –de aru."  
"We got it –de aru." We all said.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"Damn it… Where did you run off to, children?" We heard MetalEtemon yell as he kept searching for us. We were currently hiding in the base of a tree that I thought would be a good place to hide until that monkey left.  
"Do your wounds still hurt?" Mimi asked Ogremon.  
"I'm fine, Miss." Miss? Boy, we're starting to turn him into quite the gentle-mon. "But I promise you, I'll return the favor for this one day.  
"You don't have to do that."  
"No, I will! Otherwise, I won't be at peace with myself! That's the code of honor that every lone wolf upholds!" He pounded his chest.  
"By 'code of honor,' do you mean that policy about never leaving their benefactor until they've returned the favor in full?" I asked, wondering if he intends to stick with us for the remainder of our journey.  
"That is so last century." Mimi said.  
"So I'm an old school Digimon, so what…" He turned his head from us.  
"Look, Ogremon is sulking!" teased Gomamon. We all laughed.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

Floramon and Delumon opened the front doors and we were welcomed by a nasty surprise. There sat a wrapped present on the stairs in the main foyer that suddenly popped open revealing a solider on a spring holding a gun. That gun turned out to be real as it opened fire on us! We all ducked out of the way and split up into two different groups: Delumon with myself, Ross, Guilmon, Hikari, Tailmon, Sora and Piyomon while the others were with Floramon.  
"Wh-What the hell was that?!" I shouted.  
"That was a jack-in-the-box armed with a M1A1 Thompson submachine gun!" responded Ross. I will never cease to be amazed by his knowledge of warfare. He'll be the top of his class at Annapolis one of these days… if we manage to save the world that is.  
"You're not trying to lead us into a trap, are you?" I accused Delumon.  
"N-Not at all –de aru! We're too transparent to be as mean and underhanded as Pinochimon –de aru! Please believe me –de aru!" He bowed for forgiveness.  
"Onii-chan, let's believe him." Hikari told me.  
"Alright, but I've got my eye on you." I warned Delumon.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

After getting away from that crazy jack-in-the-box, we walked down the hallway where we found a toy fire truck just lying on the floor.  
"Huh?" I questioned.  
"It's a fire truck." Patamon observed.  
"Don't!" Floramon warned. "If you touch that…!" Patamon touched the button on it and the lights and sirens started to go off on the toy.  
"A siren?" Agumon question.  
"In that case…" She ran up to the toy. "Get it away…" She threw it right out the window. "Everyone, get down!" We all ducked and heard a powerful explosion from outside.  
"It was a time bomb." Koushiro realized. Should've known that was something Pinochimon would keep around his house.  
"That's why I told you not to touch anything." scolded Floramon.  
"I'm sorry…" Patamon and Agumon both apologized.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"You want to know why I fight with Leomon?" Ogremon responded to Mimi's question.  
"Yes." She said. "I want to know the reason behind why you two fight."  
"Having a reason and all, that just complicates things! My destiny is twisted together with Leomon's. We're like eternal rivals."  
"Then what will happen when one of you wins?"  
"What'll happen when someone wins? I guess we'll cheer and feel happy to know who's stronger."  
"And after that?"  
"What d'ya mean after that?"  
"What will you do if your rival was gone?"  
"If Leomon was gone…? Don't go there! I don't even wanna think about that! Defeating Leomon is the only thing that has meaning in my life. If Leomon was gone, then I'd… I'd…"  
"What you're saying is a logical contradiction. Think about it more carefully!"  
"Shut up! Even if I am contradicting myself, I'm still going to beat Leomon! What happens afterwards… doesn't matter! I'll just think about that after I've beaten him!"  
"So in the end we've just come back full circle…" I said. There was a sudden rumble outside. "Huh? What was that…?" I walked out.  
"Found you~!" Shoot! MetalEtemon was right above us and I walked out like an idiot! "Run!" I told the others and we moved as fast as we could from him.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Who should I play with next?" Pinochimon said to himself as he walked back to his mansion.  
"Pinochimon's coming back." Taichi alerted as he saw the puppet through his telescope. "Are you ready?" He asked Ross and Koushiro as the whole group was in one of the upper rooms with a large cannon beside them that was pointed out the window.  
"But none of us know how to fire this thing." Koushiro admitted.  
"Hey, you two…" Ross pointed to Delumon and Floramon.  
"You want me to fire it –de aru?" Delumon asked. He sighed. "Very well. But you must definitely keep this a secret from Pinochimon –de aru!"  
"We know!" Taichi nodded.  
"De aru~" Agumon chimed.

The two Digimon rolled the cannon out the window and began lining up the shot.  
"Well, here we go –de aru!"  
"Alignment set." Floramon informed.  
"Fire –de aru!" The pulled the cord and the rounds soon began flying through the air and crashing all around Pinochimon.  
"Wh-What?! What the heck?!" He panicked as he pulled back away from his mansion. "Great, a hiding spot." He took cover behind a large tree root. "I get it! It must be the Chosen Children. Just you watch… I'll get rid of you guys once and for all!" He charged forward into the firestorm of cannonballs, intent on slaughtering all in his path.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"Where did you go, children~?" Thankfully, we managed to escape from MetalEtemon once more by hiding in the bushes but this wasn't going to last long. We need to find a more permanent place to hide and hope that MetalEtemon goes after the Dark Masters or something. We quickly heard a roar behind us and turned to face it.  
"Wh-Who is that?" Mimi fearfully asked.  
"Friend? Or foe?" I questioned. The beast jumped out of the bushes to reveal a large yellow lion with fangs like a saber-toothed tiger. We all had a tense standoff with this lion as nothing was said.

Wait, this couldn't possibly be…

* * *

And that was Chapter 47.

Okay, next one should be next weekend, that I'm sure as I'm gonna spend the next few days studying for exams. Hasta la vista!

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	49. Oh Wind! Oh Light! SaberLeomon!

Well, got done with my tests so you guys get Chapter 48.

Shoutouts to users **Shiovaun** , **ruyuukage** , **abbydobbie** , **blackshadow34** for all your faves and follows.

And for the reviews: Thank you for your words **Kayda-Starr** , don't go anywhere yet, we're just getting started.

 **God of the Challenge** , fixed it.

And to **MadDogLucario96** , hey, I don't mind showing love to my sister story. ;)

Let's get on with the story, shall we?

* * *

 **Chapter 48: Oh Wind! Oh Light! SaberLeomon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+4. Noon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

This is just great. As if being pursued by MetalEtemon was bad enough, now this lion Digimon has to show up and he doesn't look that friendly… and yet… something about his eyes seems familiar. He took another step forward and my fears gripped me once more.  
"Don't come any closer!" I shouted as Ogremon got in front of us.  
"All right! I'll take care of him!" Gomamon assured us.  
"Wait! Calm down." The lion suddenly spoke in a voice that I remember hearing before.  
"That voice…" I muttered.  
"Could it be…?" Jou seemed to be trying to piece things together in his mind.  
"Hey, you bastard…" Ogremon aggressively shouted at the lion, making this stand-off still really tense. The sounds of a large tree falling soon rang in our ears.  
"You can't escape from me!" declared MetalEtemon who was still looking for us.  
"We'll talk later." The lion said. "Climb onto my back, quickly." Well, if the choice between this mysterious lion and that Elvis wannabee, I'll take the lion. Jou and I got on his back and we quickly road away, with Ogremon running close behind.  
"Hey, wait! Don't leave me behind!" He complained.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

MetalEtemon jumped back on the ground of the forest floor and discovered the faint footprints of the children and their Digimon friends. They had gotten away from him again, but they would not truly escape from his vengeance.  
"Just you wait! I'll be sure to find you!"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

We rode for what felt like so many miles in such a short time, it's actually amazing that this lion could almost put a car to shame. Even more amazing is that despite his injuries, Ogremon was also keeping up, though his complaining wouldn't stop. We eventually came across an entire city that was all grey and ruined with rubble all over the place. It was also very quiet and that was what unnerved me.  
"It's too quiet." I whispered.  
"Yeah, I'm with you on that, Mimi-kun." Jou whispered back.  
"Over here." The lion said he slowly walked through the ruins.  
"Say, Jou!" Gomamon pointed towards a ruined building. Jou seemed to recognize it.  
"Hey, this is…! This is the restaurant where Yamato and I were force to work!"  
"But this is weird. It should be next to a lake."  
"Everything all over the world right now has changed drastically." The lion informed us. "In any case, let's hide ourselves in here."

We walked inside and the whole place looked about the same as the rest of the city: dilapidated and abandoned. Jou said he was force to slave away in this place, I wonder if he kinda liked the idea of this place being wrecked. There was a bright light behind us and the familiar sound of a Digimon devolving which made us turn around to see the lion devolving into a very welcomed sight.  
"Leomon!" Gomamon cheered.  
"I knew it was you!" Jou added. I got all emotional and ran up to him.  
"You're alive! Leomon!" I hugged him and he did the same.  
"It's been awhile, Chosen Children."  
"You can evolve now, Leomon?" questioned Palmon.  
"Yes. It seems that after I was bathed in the light of the Digivice, I've gained the ability to evolve." My memories went back to the night Devimon tried to kill us in his mansion and then the day after when we fought Leomon in the Village of Beginnings.

Leomon suddenly loosened our hug and then smashed his fist against the wall to our surprise as he now had an angry look on his face.  
"However, I return to my original form almost immediately. I still cannot control it."  
"Why does stuff like this always happen to you? Bores me to tears it does!" Ogremon scoffed. "But that still doesn't mean you're a match for me! Leomon! Fight me!" He smashed his club into the floor. Oh, this pointless fight again? He charged straight towards Leomon but he was quickly grabbed by the lion-man before being thrown to the floor.  
"Make sure to heal that wound first. Then we'll fight." I sighed. I thought maybe Leomon would be above this petty struggle but I guess not. At least they wouldn't fight today.

The sound of a floorboard hitting the floor rang through the restaurant and we all jumped in surprise before trying to find the source of the noise. Palmon seemed to have found it and ran towards me.  
"Who's there? Come on out!" Leomon demanded. To our surprise, it wasn't the enemy but rather a Gekomon and an Otamamon who quickly jumped out of the hole, begging for mercy.  
"Please spare us, tama!" "Please spare our lives, ribbit!"  
"You two are…" I pointed.  
"Gekomon and Otamamon!" Palmon shouted.  
"Princess, ribbit! Princess!" "Thank goodness!" Gekomon ran up and I gave him a hug while Otamamon was hopping next to me. Well, nice to know they don't resent me when I abused my power.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I've lost track of how many cannon rounds Floramon and Delumon have shot at Pinochimon but those two have not let it up ever since they started firing.  
"Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him –de aru! Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him –de aru!" Delumon kept shouting as Floramon kept loading the cannon.  
"Hey, you two…" Taichi tried to get their attention. "I think that's more than enough…"  
"It's like all of the resentment they've built up against him has finally exploded." Sora believed.  
"Well, if that's the case, then I say let them get it out of them until they use up their last shot." I said.  
"YOU GUYS…!" Pinochimon screamed from outside. Floramon and Delumon stuck their heads out the window, panicked and ran away.  
"We're sorry –de aru!" I didn't mind them running away, it's not like they would've been much help in the fight against Pinochimon.  
"Who said you guys could step into my house? I'll sue you for breaking and entering!" Tailmon ran forward onto the cannon's barrel and looked down at the puppet.  
"Oh, we made sure to get permission from the people inside your house first. They're all gone now though." She teased.

The rest of us had gone back down to the front door where Taichi and I kicked it open, startling Pinochimon as we clearly caught him off guard.  
"It's time we finished this, Pinochimon!" Taichi declared.  
"Fine! If you want to play with me that badly, then we'll take this outside!" He turned around and ran away from us.  
"Pinochimon!" "Wait!" All of us charged right after him. Of course, I guess that was his plan as we soon found ourselves surrounded by these red vegetable looking Digimon, almost similar to Vegimon, who crawled out of the ground. They disguised themselves as the grass thanks to that grass root on their heads. We walked into yet another ambush!  
"Ta-Taichi!" Agumon muttered as our Digimon got close to us.  
"Oh no!" Tailmon feared as Pinochimon was on the ground, laughing so hard at us.  
"Morons! See, Takeru, I wasn't lying! I've got friends, too!" He finally stopped laughing to order his evil henchmen. "Get them, RedVegimon!"  
"Okay!" They all shouted.  
"RedVegimon! With their bodies ripened into a dark crimson, this Digimon is a stronger version of Vegimon." Koushiro informed us.  
"All right, everyone! Evolve!" ordered Taichi, and we did as we were told.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

We gathered around a table and pulled up some chairs that were still intact before I ask Gekomon and Otamamon what they were doing here and how they ended up here.  
"Why were you two hiding in here?" I asked. "What happened to the castle?" The two of them had tears in their eyes so I already knew what their answer was to begin with.  
"Our castle was destroyed by the Dark Masters, ribbit."  
"What's more, the Digimon who work for the Dark Masters kept hunting us down, tama. We barely escaped with our lives by the time we made it out here, tama."  
"That's terrible." That was all the words I could say to all that. Just hearing the atrocities committed by the Dark Masters just depressed me more.  
"Those guys slaughter every last one of the Digimon who won't listen to their orders. A load of bullshit if you ask me." Even Ogremon was upset by these actions and he's supposed to be a bad Digimon.

"We cannot allow them to get away with this any longer." Leomon spoke up. "That is why I have continued to search for you, the Chosen Children, all this time. We need your abilities to beat the Dark Masters and rid this world of the powers of evil."  
"Then we should have fought with the Dark Masters when we first came to this world." I said. "Why did we have to start off on File Island instead?" Ogremon could only laugh at my suggestion.  
"Are you stupid? If you guys had faced the Dark Masters first, you would have been dead before you even knew what was going on!" He was right, we barely got by Devimon and then so many other fights later, we are now at the strength to be able to challenge the Dark Masters… and it's still not enough.  
"But then… so many Digimon wouldn't have had to die in our place…" I could feel tears building in my eyes and I gripped my fists.  
"Mimi-kun…" Jou muttered.

"I'm not quite sure about this, but there was probably a reason why you first landed on File Island." theorized Leomon. "It was, in a sense, to test you."  
"To test us?" Palmon curiously asked.  
"Yes. It was to determine whether or not the Chosen Children could really save our world. If Devimon had killed you back then on File Island, that would have shown the limits of your abilities. But you have successfully passed that test with flying colors, and you have even grown enough to face the Dark Masters on equal ground." Yeah, but Angemon had to revert to a Digiegg to defeat Devimon, Etemon's destruction caused Ross and Taichi to get sucked through a wormhole back to Earth causing us to separate, and we lost Wizarmon in our struggle with Vamdemon. Even killing MetalSeadramon came at a price. I got up and walked towards the window. "Now is the time to defeat the Dark Masters!" Leomon announced. "Where are the other children? We must gather them up immediately."  
"Well, actually… we've kind of gone our separate ways for now." Jou explained.  
"Separate ways?"  
"We're in the middle of another test, except this time, we're struggling with ourselves."

 _Digital World. R-Day+4. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

Our Digimon evolved fast and were now deep into fighting the RedVegimon that had surrounded us. Thankfully, they were only Adult-Level Digimon so they were easier to fight, but there was still the fact that Pinochimon was also right near us.  
"Meteor Wing!" Another strike of Birdramon's attacks scattered a group of RedVegimon that was near Sora.  
"Hot, hot!" One hopped away while its back was on fire.  
"Mega Blaster!" "Heaven's Knuckle!" "Exhaust Flame!" "Neko Punch!" Our Digimon mopped up almost all the rest of them.  
"What the heck are you guys doing?" Pinochimon questioned. "You're all useless!" Taichi and Agumon ran right towards him.  
"Pinochimon! Let's fight!" Taichi shouted as his Digivice and Crest glowed.  
"Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" WarGreymon quickly flew up into the sky and got ready to dive back down on that twisted puppet. "Dramon Killer!"  
"Bullet Hammer!" The claw and the hammer collided and caused a large explosion that blew the two of them back.

"I'll show you!" Pinochimon threw out the one attack I think most of us probably feared as a group of strings shot out of his hands and entangled themselves to WarGreymon. He made some struggling noises before he turned around.  
"My body is moving on its own!" WarGreymon cried.  
"Look, you should be walking over there!" Pinochimon laughed. WarGreymon fell over right in front of Taichi and Sora.  
"WarGreymon!" Taichi shouted.  
"Everyone, get out of the way!" He warned. As we feared, WarGreymon was being puppeted and now Pinochimon was trying to kill us using our own Digimon partners. He flew up and clawed the ground that Taichi and Sora were standing just a second before they dodged him. Koushiro and I ran as fast as we could but I tripped and found myself at WarGreymon's mercy.  
"Hikari!" Tailmon shouted. "Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!" Thank goodness for my own guardian angel as Angewomon swooped in and picked me up before WarGreymon was forced the throw a killing blow.

The problem was that the others still had to deal with the RedVegimon while WarGreymon was pursuing us.  
"Run quickly!" WarGreymon kept warning. Birdramon and Kabuterimon were flying back around to help while Growmon had managed to break the remaining RedVegimon to also help.  
"Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!"  
"Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!"  
"Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!"  
"Atomic Blaster!" MegaloGrowmon fired his energy bursts that flew towards Pinochimon but didn't hit him; rather, he was aiming for Pinochimon's strings which the blast cut.  
"Horn Buster!" AtlurKabuterimon's attack was more for Pinochimon as the blast landed right in front of the puppet and blew him back, throwing his mallet up in the air where Garudamon caught it in her talons and crushed it. He now was completely surrounded by five Perfects and one Ultimate.  
"Wha… What the hell!" Pinochimon was shocked by the sudden turn of events.  
"Pinochimon! This fight's over!" Taichi told him as we now had the complete upper hand on him!

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

 _"_ _Please be careful around the Chosen Children! If you make light of them, even you may lose, Pinochimon-sama!"  
"I… may lose?"  
"They have something that you don't, Pinochimon-sama!"_ Pinochimon thought back to Jyureimon's warning yesterday and realized that he may have been right. The Chosen Children had soundly beaten him.  
 _"_ _Something that I don't have? As if I'll believe that!"_ Pinochimon thought to himself. Just because they beaten him, didn't mean they had truly won, he still had a few tricks up his sleeve and Jyureimon's advice be damned! "Morons! Don't think you've won just yet!" He shouted in defiance. His eyes suddenly glowed and Pinochimon's mansion begun to rise out of the ground. It turned out the mansion was the head to a giant wooden robot. "Squash them flat!" Pinochimon yelled as he ran away from the Chosen Children. The children could only look on in shock as the wooden robot positioned its foot to stomp the children to their deaths.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Leomon's ears suddenly perked up and he turned his attention to the door of the restaurant.  
"Everyone, be careful." He said.  
"He's here." Ogremon added. Great, just for a moment, I thought we had actually escaped from that off-tune monkey. Sure enough, MetalEtemon kicked open the doors and laughed.  
"I've finally found you. Now, here comes my time for revenge!"  
"MetalEtemon! I will be your opponent!" Leomon stepped forward. "Leomon, warp-evolve! SABERLEOMON!" He burst right through the wall to the outside and MetalEtemon followed suit.  
"Fine by me! It doesn't matter who gets in my way. Don't expect me to show any mercy!"  
"Leomon! Don't!" I cried out.  
"Let me handle this! All of you, get out of here! Nail Crusher!" SaberLeomon charged forward.  
"Number One Punch!" Both attacks collided and blew both of them back while causing a massive explosion of dust.

"I can't leave Leomon to fight all by himself! Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON!"  
"I'll fight, too!" Palmon ran up next to me. "Mimi!" I just stood there looking at my Digivice. I just couldn't stomach Palmon fighting anymore. I couldn't stomach anyone fighting anymore. I'm just stick and tired of all the pain and death! "What do you want me to do?" Palmon was practically begging to help the others and all I could do was say nothing.  
"Mimi-kun…" Jou muttered as he was looking at me as well.  
"Eat this! Harpoon…!"  
"Wait!" Jou stopped Ikkakumon from launching his attack. "Stop!"  
"Why, Jou? Why are you stopping me?"  
"Let's do what SaberLeomon says and get out of here!"  
"Jou…"

"Infinity Arrow!" SaberLeomon's mane began shooting a wave of needles towards MetalEtemon but the monkey just took them all with a smile on his face.  
"What…?"  
"Come on, get on Ikkakumon!" Jou ordered me.  
"But Leomon…!" I knew we had to escape, but I wasn't leaving SaberLeomon behind.  
"Now it's my turn." MetalEtemon laughed as he cracked his metallic knuckles. "Full Metal Hip Attack!" He ran towards SaberLeomon and body slammed him to the ground.  
"Wait!" Ogremon ran up to the fight. "I'm the only one here who gets to beat Leomon!" It was kinda of a nice thought to think that Ogremon cared, but really, he just wanted to fight Leomon some more.  
"What?" MetalEtemon questioned.  
"Stay back, Ogremon! You're no match for him!"  
"Shut your trap! I'm sick of you getting to show off all the time!"

"No!" I shouted as I ran forward to them all in a bid to try to help Ogremon.  
"Mimi!" Palmon cried out.  
"You can't fight him with those injuries! Don't do it! Stop!" I begged him.  
"Shut up!" MetalEtemon shouted. "There's no need to push in line, I'll send all of you to your deaths in a single blow! Dark Spirits Deluxe!" I suddenly looked up and saw a black bolt of lightning heading straight for me! Stupid Mimi! All you just did in your bid to help Ogremon was get yourself killed! I stared at my incoming death… before falling to the ground as SaberLeomon jumped over me and took the bolt straight into his back. SaberLeomon roared in terrible pain as MetalEtemon just laughed at the pain he caused.  
"SaberLeomon!" Jou yelled.  
"Ikkakumon, super-evolve! ZUDOMON!"

I crawled right over to SaberLeomon who was lying on the ground. Tears were filling my vision as I was the reason why he was suffering in such terrible pain… pain that probably was fatal.  
"No…" I cried. "Why does it never stop…?!"  
"Hammer Spark!" Zudomon's bolt flew from his hammer and stuck MetalEtemon, but like SaberLeomon's Infinity Arrow, it had no effect.  
"Absolutely futile! My body has a full coating of Chrome Digizoid metal!"  
"Then take this! Hammer Boomerang!" Zudomon just tossed his hammer right towards the monkey who didn't bother to even move.  
"Are you some kind of idiot? Whatever you do is useless!" The hammer stuck him right in the chest and to the surprise of us all, especially MetalEtemon, a large crack formed in his chest. "Why?! My Chrome Digizoid metal coating!"  
"I'll tell you why. This Thor Hammer is made of the same Chrome Digizoid!"  
"What?!"  
"Nail Crusher!" SaberLeomon got back up and charged right towards the ape and his claws punctured right though his chest. MetalEtemon freaked out at what just happened.  
"You must be kidding me!" He screamed as he disintegrated into data.  
"We won…" Jou muttered. SaberLeomon devolved back into Leomon where he fell forward.  
"Leomon!" I screamed as I ran over to him.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

We all quickly ran as fast as we could to avoid getting crushed by the giant robot. Thankfully, WarGreymon dived down and tried to brace the foot.  
"Look out!" He cried. One of the robot's arms tried to grab Hikari but Angewomon got in the way to keep that from happening.  
"Hikari!" Taichi called out as he tried to reach for her. "Hikari, over here!" They managed to grab hands as they separated from us. WarGreymon got away from being crushed while the robot flicked off Angewomon.  
"Shadow Wing!" "Atomic Blaster!" Both Garudamon and MegaloGrowmon shot at the mansion head but neither attacks did any damage.  
"It doesn't work!" I feared.  
"It's made of wood! It should burn!" cursed Ross. The robot soon swatted away AtlurKabuterimon.  
"AtlurKabuterimon!" Koushiro shouted.  
"Takeru, get out of here!" Angemon ordered.  
"B-But…!" The young boy tried to argue.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Get them! Get them!" Pinochimon laughed as he ran from the children.  
"Take me with you!" A RedVegimon jumped out from behind a tree.  
"Shut up! You'll just drag me down! Flying Cross Cutter!" Pinochimon threw his puppeteer cross and sliced the RedVegimon in half, killing him. The slice also cut a tree that fell down. He turned around to see the glowing eyes of MetalGarurumon who slowly walked out of the tree line. "Who's there? You came at a good time!" Pinochimon was still under the idea that MetalGarurumon was still fighting the others. "Fight him like you did last time!" He pointed to WarGreymon.

MetalGarurumon just stood still and stared at him. Pinochimon was confused at first before he got upset at the lack of movement the mechanized wolf  
"Listen to me!" He threw out his strings to try to force the wolf to obey. "Now go! Finish them off!" Still no movement. "W-Why? Why aren't my powers working?"  
"Of course they won't work." A voice said. The voice turned out to be Yamato who now walked out of the dense forest. "There's no way he'll obey someone who can kill the people he calls friends while not even feeling sorry about it." The two of them had witnessed Pinochimon's brutal execution of one of his servants a few moments ago.  
"What? Now that pisses me off… Everyone just needs to do what I tell them to do!" He charged forward to try to kill the both of them, but that turned out to be the final mistake for the Dark Master.  
"Cocytus Breath!" Pinochimon's cross flew into the air and landed back on the ground next to the fatally wounded puppet.  
"Jyureimon… What was it… that I was… missing…?" He muttered before his gears finally stopped and he lay dead on the ground.

Back with the other children, the giant house robot suddenly stopped and begun to fall and the Digimon and their human partners cleared out. Yamato walked over to Pinochimon's corpse as it begun to disintegrate. Within just a few minutes, even while separated, the children were successfully able to kill two Ultimate-Level Digimon.  
"Yamato-kun!" Sora shouted as she spotted Yamato.  
"Did you get that puppet? Nice shot." Ross thanked. Yamato said nothing and tried to avoid looking at the others who were regrouping with each other. Both he and MetalGarurumon walked back into the thick woods before vanishing from sight. The ground soon began to crumble and like with MetalSeadramon the day before, the forest part of Spiral Mountain was receding.  
"An earthquake?" Hikari questioned.  
"Now that Pinochimon is destroyed, the forest is disappearing!" Koushiro informed.  
"Run! We've gotta get out of this forest!" Taichi exclaimed. They got on their flying Digimon and flew away from the region before the ground gave out under them.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

"No!" I cried as Leomon laid on the steps of the restaurant. "Don't die!"  
"Leomon!" "Leomon…" Palmon and Gomamon cried as well.  
"Damn it…" Jou yelled. "Toilet paper won't fix this!" He then threw his duffle bag on the ground.  
"The forest…" Leomon muttered. "The forest is returning…" We turned our heads to see that the forest was indeed moving. Leomon chuckled. "It appears your friends… have defeated Pinochimon… I knew they would." He struggled to say that.  
"Please! Don't die!" I begged as I cried into his chest.  
"There is no need to mourn. I will be reborn in the Village of Beginnings." He then looked to Ogremon who had tears in his eyes as well. "My apologies, Ogremon. My fight with you will have to be postponed until… then…"  
"Leomon…" Ogremon sobbed as Leomon vanished.  
"NO!" I screamed.  
"Damn it…!" Jou cursed once more.

I separated from the others in order to try to avoid all the fighting and the dying, but it looks like I just can't escape it.  
"Mimi-kun, let's go to the Village of Beginnings." Jou suggested our next move.  
"If we go to the Village of Beginnings, it won't just be Leomon waiting for us. All of the Digimon who are gone, like Chuumon and Piccolomon, will be reborn too." I said with some hope in my voice, even if I still was crying.  
"You're right! That's why we need to go find that village!"  
"The Village of Beginnings is dead." Ogremon told us. "I walked through it a few weeks ago. It's changed completely, all because of the Dark Masters." And once again, my hopes are dashed.  
"That can't be…" I whispered.  
"The Village of Beginnings won't return to normal until we've beaten the Dark Masters! Whaddya choose to do? Fight to restore life to all those you care for or cry and keep trying to run from a fight you can't avoid?" Those words stung.

"We have to bring the village back to normal." Jou determined.  
"I don't want to sit around here anymore doing nothing!" Gomamon informed.  
"Mimi-kun! I know this will be hard on you, but we have no other choice but to beat the Dark Masters!"  
"Hey, Mimi! Let me fight, too!" Palmon asked. "If our friends still die even when I don't fight, then I would rather be fighting than not at all!" They're all right. The fact that others will get hurt and could die was just unavoidable. If I continue to try to avoid it all, then there will be even more death and nothing will change.  
"Okay." I finally conceded as I whipped away my tears. "I'll do whatever it takes to bring back the Village of Beginnings. You'll help us, won't you Ogremon?" I smiled at him which embarrassed him.  
"Keh! As if I'd want to team up with you guys! But I still have a fight to settle with Leomon… Guess I'll just have to tag along." He sighed.  
"Thanks! Having you around is reassuring!" Jou appreciated the fact that at least he would help us.

"Then with that decided, let's gather up more comrades first!"  
"Comrades?" Gomamon questioned Ogremon's suggestion.  
"There should be Digimon around who are still opposing the Dark Masters. We should go look for them!"  
"Okay." I said as I stood up.  
"Princess tama, can we come with you too, tama?" Otamamon asked.  
"No."  
"Why not?!" Gekomon was confused by my answer.  
"I'll change my mind if you call me 'Mimi' instead of 'Princess.'" I teased them. Calling me 'princess' just keeps reminding me of how selfish I had become while under their care at TonosamaGekomon's castle.  
"Mimi! Please take us with you, ribbit!"  
"Of course!" I smiled at them, showing that I was always intending to take them with us.

We gathered our things and headed back on the road, hopeful to find any allies still willing to help us fight the Dark Masters…

* * *

And that was Chapter 48... and the start of all the times that Leomon keeps getting killed in this damn series. At lease Secret of the 327th and it's prequel Sticky Situation fixed that issue of Tamers.

Anyways, nothing more to say so see you later. Actually, I've got almost the rest of the month pretty free so I might be able to finish this story by Halloween. I can only hope.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	50. Orders to Bomb! Mugendramon!

Chapter 49, everybody!

Sorry for the delay, got distracted by re-watching the Resistance games. Man those were scary, hard to believe they came from the same guys that brought us Ratchet and Clank.  
"For the last time, I have a collect call from a Mr. Youaregonnadie, will you accept the charges?"  
"Ugh, you... are... gonna..."  
"I'll take that as a yes."  
"You idiot!"  
"Uh oh!"  
"I'm paying you top dollar for your protection, and your moron employees are out on some... picnic!"  
"Hey, that was a bonding exercise!"

Anyways, shoutout to **Taiski** and the fact that I made his top shelve, as well as **foxchick1** for their faves and follows.

And of course, thanks to loyal follower, **MadDogLucario96** who really helps me keep this going.

So, let's get on with the adventure... and one episode that is great, but dang... is it a heavy one.

* * *

 **Chapter 49: Orders to Bomb! Mugendramon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+9. Late Morning.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I'd never truly admit this out to the others, but I'm really worried right now. It's been almost a week since we killed MetalSeadramon and Pinochimon and the fact that we haven't run into Mugendramon or Piemon or any of their servants since that time is what is unnerving me. Right now, we're walking down a lonely highway in the middle of the desert. If the Dark Masters attacked now, there would be nowhere to hide.

Hikari coughed again; she's been doing that for a few hours, I'm starting to get worried that something is wrong. She started to slow down and I stayed with her while the others kept marching ahead. I kept behind her until she started to fall forward. Thankfully, I quickly caught her but something was clearly wrong with her as she looked god-awful.  
"Taichi!" I called out. The others turned around and both Taichi and Tailmon's eyes widened.  
"Hikari!" Taichi shouted as he ran up to us.  
"I can't fully tell because of the heat, but she's burning up!"  
"Quick! Get her into some shade!" Sora advised.  
"Where?" Koushiro asked.  
"A bus stop! Over there!" Takeru pointed out.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We quickly ran down the road to the bus stop and at least got her some shade as we placed her on the bench but she was still looking terrible. We put a cloth on her head to try to cool her down.  
"Her cold must have come back." Sora believed. "They do say summer colds are hard to get rid of."  
"Hikari… Are you okay?" Tailmon asked her. Hikari opened her eyes and gave her a smile but she was obviously fooling herself.  
"Why didn't you say something before? I bet you haven't been feeling that great for a while now." I told her.  
"Because… If we don't hurry, our world will-" Hikari coughed again.  
"Hikari…" That's just like her. Always caring more for others than herself… even if it's her own health on the line. Seeing her like this… God, the memories are just flooding back in of that September day as she was loaded into that ambulance.

"Damn it!" Ross yelled as he pounded his fist together. Koushiro, Ross and I had walked away from the others while they still looked over Hikari. "I was this close to grabbing her some medicine from the apartment before we left just to be safe, and decided not to!" Looks like Ross was taking this just as hard.  
"Maybe… Maybe we shouldn't have brought Hikari with us after all." I suggested much to Koushiro's shock.  
"What!? We can't save either the Digimon world or Earth without Hikari-kun's help. She's a Chosen Child just like us."  
"But she's still in second grade… And she just got over her first cold… "  
"Takeru is in second grade, too…" Ross reminded me but he wasn't saying much else as he was the only one who knew what was going through my mind.  
"What's wrong, Taichi-san?"  
"It's nothing. It's just- She tends to keep quiet and endure things when she doesn't have to, you know?"  
"Taichi-san…"

He walked away to rejoin the others while Ross kept looking at me.  
"What?" I asked him.  
"Whatever you're thinking… don't. It's not gonna be like last time."  
"You sure about that? There isn't a hospital anywhere nearby this time."  
"We'll figure it out. The last thing we need is for you to break down. This isn't your fault."  
"But if I…"  
"But if you what? Taichi, there was nothing you could do. Hikari decided to keep quiet and not tell us that she wasn't feeling well. She did that because she didn't want it slowing down our mission. That's who she is… an angel." I sighed after he said that. He's right. But I still can't help but be worried. I'm supposed to watch over her.  
"Koushiro-han! I've found something!" Tentomon shouted as he flew back to our group.

Within the next few minutes, we were flying on Kabuterimon's head as he flew towards the thing he spotted. Hopefully, it would help Hikari's predicament.  
"Look, over there." He told us. To our amazement, in front of us was a large body of water that surrounded a titanic city, similar in the shape of Manhattan. Actually, come to think of it, it was Manhattan as we just flew over what I think maybe the Brooklyn Bridge. We all gasped at this devolvement.  
"It's America!" Takeru shouted. "Huh?" After flying past the Chrysler Building and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, we saw that the whole city changed radically in design.  
"This area is Italy." Koushiro pointed out as we spotted St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. "Now it's the Arc de Triomphe! That's in France!"  
"Berlin! Dead ahead!" Ross pointed and we spotted the Brandenburg Gate. "Moscow and London too!" Right by the Germany part of the city was Russia with the Kremlin as well Britain with Big Ben and Parliament next to that.  
"But… I don't see any signs of people down there. This feels weird." observed Sora.  
"No Digimon either." Piyomon added. I looked down to see Hikari was looking even more awful than we thought.  
"Hey! Can you find some place where we can rest?" I asked Koushiro.  
"Okay!"

 _Monument City, Digital World. R-Day+9. Noon._

We soon found refuge in this French château that looked like it was built in the seventeenth or eighteenth century but the interior made it look more like it was only built in the eighties or the nineties. We quickly got Hikari on a bed and under the covers before started to scour the entire place for any type of medicine that could help break her fever. We were opening drawers, cabinets, anything that we suspected there was some medicine in.  
"Hey, Taichi!" Agumon ran into the kitchen with a small box in his hands. "Is this it?" I took it from him and looked at it closely. It was a box of cold medicine.  
"All right! That's what I'm talking about!" I shouted.  
"You found the cold medicine?" Ross inquired. I opened the box and I should've known… empty… that's just our luck.

I walked into the bedroom and Hikari was resting quietly while Sora and their Digimon also watched. Sora looked at me with hope but I shook my head to inform her about the medicine.  
"I see…" She nodded.  
"We'll go out to look for some. How is Hikari doing?"  
"She just fell asleep. I can only hope the sweating will help to lower her fever…"  
"Yeah. Well, take good care of her for me?"  
"Sure. Be careful, Taichi."  
"Taichi-san. I'll go with you to look for her cold medicine." Takeru offered his help. I sure appreciate it, but it'd be better for him to stick here.  
"No, I want you to stay with them, Takeru. We don't know when the Dark Masters will attack us next." I told him.  
"Okay then. I'll make sure to protect everyone!"  
"Leave it to us!" Patamon chimed in.  
"You're the man!" I smiled. "Ross, Koushiro, let's go!"

The three of us and our Digimon ran through the streets of the British part of the city as fast as we could. Time was of the essence, we had to cure Hikari or else… God, I don't want to imagine what could happen.  
"Medicine, medicine…" Agumon kept muttering with every breath as we ran. "Where do we find medicine?" I stopped to turn around where Koushiro was standing in the middle of intersection.  
"What are you doing, Koushiro?" I questioned.  
"There it is!" He pointed and we followed him.  
"A telephone booth?" Ross asked.  
"We'll only be wasting time if we searched without any leads." He pulled out a cord and connected it to his laptop and plugged the other end of the cord into the phone in order. He used Tentomon as a desk so he could type away on the laptop for whatever he was planning. Soon there was a map of the city on his screen with a big red dot that must represent us. "All right! I've got a map of the city!"

Oh, now I figured it out. He was using the computer to find where we were as well as find someplace that had the medicine that we needed for Hikari.  
"S-So, where do we find cold medicine?" I asked him.  
"The closest hospitals and drug stores around here are…" He kept typing.  
"What's the hold up? It doesn't matter, just find one!" Ross was running out of patience and I was as well. The laptop map soon flashed yellowish lights that must be the locations we wanted.  
"Here they are!"  
"All right!" I pointed one close to the west of us. "Let's go to this one!" I quickly ran out of the booth and was practically leaving the others in the dust.  
"Taichi! P-Please wait for me!" Koushiro cried as he and Ross ran after me.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Unbeknownst to the boys, Koushiro had made a mistake by plugging in his cord to the phone jack and accessing the map as the information that he received. It was also being picked up on the screen of the headquarters of the Dark Master that ruled the region: Mugendramon. The Digimon that was on the computers that served under the mechanized dinosaur were gear-shaped creatures with two smaller gears to their sides and red eyes. These were called Hagurumon and they were currently observing the locations that Koushiro had searched.  
"The line has disconnected!" One of the Hagurumon informed. "Mugendramon-sama! The children were looking up information on hospitals and drug stores."  
"Hospitals. Drug stores. Display their locations." The Dark Master ordered.  
"Yes, sir. There are twelve located within the vicinity."  
"All of them will be our targets. Metal Empire Army! Move out!"  
"Metal Empire Army! Move out!" "Metal Empire Army! Move out!" Two Hagurumon repeated.

Throughout the city, building walls and city streets were opening up to reveal a mass assault force of Mugendramon's forces. These included Mechanorimon that the children had seen in Homeostasis's flashbacks and large tank like Digimon known exactly as Tankmon. These Digimon possessed a large one-hundred and five millimeter cannon on its face and thirty millimeter triple barreled battling guns on where both its hands should be. These deadly forces walked and rolled to their respective targets and they weren't the only devastating forces Mugendramon was deploying. St. Peter's Square opened up to reveal a hanger that was carrying two large Digimon in it. The first one was a brown dragon with purple hair and yellow eyes with tattered purple wings, a black helmet and two arms with massive cannons attached to each arm. This destructive Digimon was Megadramon. The other was like a twin to Megadramon, except its only differences was its skin color which was purple and its wings that were robotic. This monster was called Gigadramon. Both took to the skies in order to search for and slaughter any of the Chosen Children that they would find.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

After a few minutes we arrived at the nearest hospital, we walked through the building until we reached the area that should be carrying the pills and medicine. As I looked around… it was all too familiar.

 _Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital, Higashiazabu District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. September 13th, 1996. 1554 Hours._

I've never actually been in the ER wing of a hospital before today. The police drove me hear after Hikari was placed into the ambulance. At the same time, they were asking what my parents' number was so they could get in contact with them. I just stood there in the ER lobby not knowing what to do.  
"Taichi!" I heard Mom say as I turned around to see her running towards me… and the look on her face haunted me. It was mix of sheer anger and sadness. "Taichi, where did they take Hikari?!"

 _Monument City, Digital World. R-Day+9. Early Afternoon._

I gripped my fists tight to the point that if I wasn't wearing gloves, I could probably see my knuckles turning white.  
"Taichi!" Ross brought me back to reality. "You okay?"  
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah…" I knew I wasn't fooling him.  
"Taichi-san! Ross-san! I've found it! It's this way!" Koushiro waved to us. We walked into the pharmacy and was looking all over for whatever we needed… but this was like trying to find a needle in a haystack because I have no idea what any of these bottles are or what they're for.  
"Which one is cold medicine?" I questioned.  
"I can't make heads or tails of any of them." Ross added.  
"If only we had Jou-san here. His father is a doctor." Koushiro reminded us.  
"Man, he's never around when you really need him!" I moaned. I almost shouted at Ross about the fact that he should have insisted to go with Mimi and leave Jou with us… but I kept quiet because I knew he'd probably deck me for that. This wasn't his fault, anyways.  
"Wait! I have an idea." Koushiro pulled out his laptop and cords again and unplugged the telephone from the phone jack and plugged his laptop in it before he typed away again.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The screen glowed in front of Mugendramon showing the network being accessed at one of the targets that his forces were approaching.  
"Someone has accessed the network within our first target area." A Hagurumon informed.  
"Restrict our target to the first location. Prepare to attack!" Mugendramon ordered. Across the city, the Metal Empire Army was stopping what they were doing and quickly turned to towards the hospital the boys were in. The deadly trap was ready and the children were about to walk out into it.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

I stared at the bottle of ZE-22 Y-ZE that was holding in my hand that Koushiro told me to find.  
"Is it this one?"  
"Yes, I'm sure of it! This should help Hikari-kun!" Thank goodness, now we got to get back to her.  
"All right! Then let's hurry-" I was interrupted as the sounds of explosions and bullets flying through the hospital rang out. We all quickly ducked and looked up to see a hail of large bullets ripping through the walls of the building. Then came the sounds of cannons firing before loud explosions burst all throughout the building. The lights soon went out after that.  
"Wh- What's this?" "What the hell was that!?" Both Agumon and Guilmon questioned. We got up and ran towards the front door of the hospital but before we got to the front hall, Ross held us back.  
"Wait a second!" He loudly whispered. He picked up a large shard of glass that was on the floor and begun to angle it so he could see outside without stepping out into the open. His eyes widened when he saw whatever it was. "Christ!"  
"What? What is it? The enemy?" I asked him.  
"More like an army. There's a bunch of those Mechanorimon and a lot of tank-like Digimon with them."  
"Twinkle Beam!" The Mechanorimon shouted and their attacks tore through the hospital right at the front door.

We ran through the halls but had to stop as one of those tank Digimon just ran right through the walls and into our path.  
"There's another one!" Agumon cried.  
"Tankmon! It uses its heavyweight power and the assortment of weapons all over its body to blast its enemies to pieces. Its special attack, Hyper Cannon, is shot from the gun barrel on its head!" Koushiro read off his Analyzer.  
"How did they know we were in here?!" Tentomon wondered.  
"Maybe they spotted us when we walked in."  
"Damn it! Just when we found the medicine!" I cursed our luck. We heard the sounds of metal footsteps and turned to see a Mechanorimon behind us.  
"Twinkle Beam!" "Hyper Cannon!" Both Digimon launched their attacks.  
"In here!" Ross knocked open the door beside us and we all dived as both attacks hit each other causing a massive explosion. We thankfully ran out the window and dived on the ground as the whole room behind us was engulfed in the blast. Hopefully, we could escape in the confusion.  
"Let's move!" I told them and we all ran to get away from the hospital.

We found a safe place to lie low in an area that looked like to be Berlin. We were about seven stories up in a building and could see those Tankmon just rolling across the streets trying to find us.  
"How many of them are out there?" I asked.  
"All right, I'll go and deal with them!" Agumon volunteered.  
"Please wait!" Koushiro stopped us.  
"What do you mean 'wait'? Our Digimon could take those tin cans." Ross believed.  
"We don't have an accurate idea of their fighting strength. It's too dangerous!" If we can't fight them, then we can't get the medicine back to Hikari!  
"Then what do you expect us to do, Koushiro?!" I questioned him.  
"I'm investigating where the enemy is positioned, so that I can map a safe route for us to travel. Our top priority is to make sure we get that medicine to her, after all." Well, at least he remembers what's important.  
"Y-Yeah… You're right." I sighed.  
"All right! I've pinpointed their locations!"  
"Really?"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Mugendramon-sama! An access point has been spotted in Sector B-12!"  
"Change the location of our target. Sector B-12!" The units on patrol received their orders and turned to their new targets with mindless obedience.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Ah!" Koushiro gasped.  
"What's wrong, Koushiro?" I asked.  
"The enemy… They're surrounding this building…" My eyes widened.  
"What! How?!"  
"It can't be…" It seems both him and Ross had come to an epiphany. Ross ran over to the wall outlet and pulled the plug that Koushiro had and I finally realized it as well.  
"That's because they've been using this to track us this whole time!" Ross shouted.  
"Taichi!" Agumon yelled. We saw a large dragon Digimon flying right towards our level and we quickly got out of the way before we got eaten by him.  
"Agumon, evolve! GREYMON! Mega Flame!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON! Exhaust Flame!" The dragon had gotten himself stuck into the glass and both our evolved Digimon hit him with their attacks before we made another escape.

 _Spiral Mountain Castle, Digital World. R-Day+9. Early Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Piemon was sitting in the observatory of Spiral Mountain Castle, observing the chaos that Mugendramon was causing for the children.  
"This is wearisome to watch. He never lets down his guard nor shows signs of weakness. Truly, he is a Digimon who exists only to destroy. That is Mugendramon. I suppose it is he who will bring the Chosen Children to their doom. It's a shame I won't have the chance to play with you. Adios!" He lifted his glass of alcohol as he finished his monologue.

 _Monument City, Digital World. R-Day+9. Early Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Greymon, super-evolve! METALGREYMON!" "Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" Both of Digimon evolved to their Perfect-Levels and jumped out the window of the building in an effort to escape the massed army of enemies that had surrounded the Chosen Children. MetalGreymon crushed two Tankmon as he hit the ground while MegaloGrowmon swooped by a group of Mechanorimon before firing on them.  
"Atomic Blaster!"  
"MegaloGrowmon! Keep them off of us!" Ross shouted to his partner. Ross, Taichi, Koushiro and Tentomon were all hanging on tight to MetalGreymon in their escape which gave MegaloGrowmon free reign to fight off the enemy.  
"Come on! Keep going!" Taichi insisted to MetalGreymon as they tried to put as much distance as they could away from that force.  
"We've lost our target!" A Hagurumon admitted. "They've escaped again!" He was fearful of his master's response to that news. Mugendramon said nothing and just stared at the screen.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

We took refuge in Notre Dame and from the looks of things; we must have gave those Digimon the slip because they were still patrolling the streets.  
"There's no way to predict their patrol routes to avoid them. The only real way to get around would be to use the laptop, but then they'd just know we're here again." Ross said as he came back from the upper levels of the building where he was observing the Tankmon and Mechanorimon outside.  
"The enemy located us by using the signal from my computer connection. I'm sorry." Koushiro apologized. "I was careless." Careless?! I ran right up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.  
"Being careless is no excuse!" I roared in his face. "While we're stuck in here, Hikari is…! Hikari is…!"  
"Taichi! Get off him!" Ross dragged me away from Koushiro, but I swear, I think I'm starting to see red. Ross was probably smart to keep holding me back. "Look, we didn't take into account that this city was probably monitored via the phone jacks. But Hikari being ill is no excuse for you to try to tear Koushiro's head off!"  
"What's wrong with you?" Agumon asked. "This isn't like you, Taichi!" As soon as he said that, I suddenly was able to clear my head and suppress my anger.

"I-I'm sorry." I now apologized. I turned around and fell to my knees in shame.  
"Did something happen, Taichi-san?" Koushiro questioned.  
"You don't have to tell him if you don't want, Taichi." Ross told me.  
"No… no… they deserve to know. Hikari… Hikari… She almost died once because of me." I finally said it. Judging from the sounds of the others, they were surprised to hear that. "I was in second grade at the time, and Hikari was in Preschool. On that day, she stayed at home because she had a cold. I came home to find her sitting up on the couch and watching the TV. I though she must've gotten better, so I took her outside to play with me. I was playing soccer at the park with her, I actually scolded her for kicking the ball wrong but the reason for it as I discovered when I picked up the ball was because she passed out right there. Thank god a nearby parent quickly called for an ambulance. The police that stopped by took me in their car to the hospital where Mom and Dad later arrived."

"I think that day was the angriest I ever saw my mother. She was so upset with me but she also had tears in her eyes. She ending up slapping me right there in the ER wing because of my stupidity."  
 _"_ _I told you that Hikari was sick!"  
_ "I made her cold so bad that she was barely alive for three days. When she was finally brought back from the hospital, the first thing she said to me was…"  
 _"_ _Onii-chan… I'm sorry I couldn't kick the ball very well…"  
_ "I mean, for God's sake! She was more upset with herself for not kicking a soccer ball for me, rather than being upset at me for nearly getting her killed!" My eyes were just filled with tears. "That's the kind of girl she is! She's always thinking about other people before herself, and she'll never tell anyone that she's in pain or having a hard time, even if it kills her!" Jeez, I can't even control the tears now; they're just all coming out. "The thing is, she might not have even wanted to come to this stupid world at all… But when people tell her that the fate of the world is in her hands or something, she could never refuse!"  
"Taichi-san…"  
"That's why… That's why I'm supposed to look after her and protect her… B-But I…" I punched a pew with my fist.

"Did you know about this?" Koushiro asked Ross.  
"How could I not? Dad and I drove from Yokohama as fast as we could the moment we heard that. Actually, I hold myself in blame as well." Ross admitted.  
"Why?"  
"I should've just stuck around a few hours more… It was a Friday and the Shiloh was docked so after class, I took the first line to Yokohama. If I had just stayed, then Taichi could've had me kick that ball and none of this would've happened. I mean, if Taichi is supposed to be watching her, then I'm supposed to be watching both of them." Nothing was said for the next minute, the only sound was just me crying some more.  
"Taichi-san…" I felt Koushiro's hand on my shoulder. I looked at him and he had quite the determined look on his face. "I swear to you, we are going to get that medicine back to Hikari-kun."

"Since it's impossible to break through them head on, and don't say you will if you have to, Ross-san." Both of us chuckled at Koushiro's words. He's right, if given the chance, Ross would be the first one of us to march into Hell if need be. "Anyways, the frontal approach is too risky so let's use the enemy's own strategy to our advantage!"  
"What do you mean, Koushiro-han?" inquired Tentomon.  
"This software program will prevent them from finding out where I'm accessing."  
"You mean, mask our location? That'll probably do it. Wait, software? Is this thing legal?" Ross asked.  
"Eh…" Koushiro shook his hand in a 'so-so' manner. "If I use this, I'm sure we'll be able to deceive the enemy!" He looked to me as if asking me permission to do this. He's trying to atone for his earlier mistake and I should be like Hikari and not hold it against him.  
"Do it, Koushiro." I nodded.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"We've caught their access point!" One of the Hagurumon cheered. His celebration was cut immediately when he saw multiple points flashing on the screen. "This is-!" He turned to his master. "What should we do now, Mugendramon-sama?" Mugendramon said nothing again as he was clearly in deep thought about what to do next.  
"What are these?" Tentomon pointed to the laptop screen.  
"They indicate where the enemy is located." explained Koushiro.  
"They're not moving." Taichi observed.  
"They can't because they don't know where we are."  
"Of course, those forces must be in constant contact with a command center and if your program worked, then they can't pinpoint us…" Ross theorized.  
"And their forces are standing still waiting for their next orders…" Guilmon pieced together.  
"And there's our way back to the others!" Taichi finished. They all gathered their things and ran for the door as fast as they could. They knew the enemy wouldn't be confused forever so they had to take their chance while they still had it.  
 _"_ _Just wait Hikari! I'm bringing meds to you right now!"_ Taichi thought to himself.

Mugendramon finally came to a decision of what to do next and it wasn't good for the Chosen Children.  
"Initiate Plan Z as of this moment!" He ordered.  
"B-But that plan is…!" A Hagurumon protested. Plan Z was simple plan to follow. Scorched Earth. Mugendramon had no care for the city and if wiping it out with the Chosen Children being buried under the rubble was the result, then the mechanized dinosaur would order it without any hesitation.  
"Defeating the Chosen Children is our utmost priority. Prepare the execution at once!"  
"Y-Yes, sir!" Both Hagurumon complied. "Prepare to execute Plan Z!" "Prepare to execute Plan Z!"  
"Plan Z… Execute!" Mugendramon shouted. On the streets, the boys carefully watched the two flying dragons patrolling above them, unaware of their new orders. Back at the château, Takeru was looking out the window and seeing the dragons coming towards their area.

"Genocide Attack!" Megadramon cried as his cannon arms begun to fire waves of missiles towards the city. Gigadramon was doing the same as well and leaving no building standing per Plan Z's orders.  
"What are they doing?" Taichi asked.  
"They're shooting all over the place." Tentomon said.  
"Do they think we're over there?" Guilmon questioned.  
"I-It can't be…" Koushiro stuttered.  
"It can't be what, Koushiro? By the way, who are those guys?" inquired Ross. Koushiro pulled up his Digimon Analyzer.  
"Uh, let's see. Megadramon. He is one of the most powerful among all of the Perfect-Level, Dragon-type Digimon. The organic missiles he shoots from both hands, Genocide Attack, burns everything to the ground. The other one is Gigadramon. A Cyborg-type, Dark Dragon Digimon whose destructive power and speed surpass Megadramon's! His special attack is Genocide Gear." After he read that, Koushiro slumped to the ground. "It appears my plan has backfired."  
"What do you mean?" Agumon queried.  
"The enemy has stopped searching for us. Instead, they're leveling down the entire city with us in it!" The others eyes widened upon hearing those words.  
"Y-You can't be serious!" Taichi was in disbelief.

"Bombing of Sectors A-1 and A-2 completed!" One of the Hagurumon informed.  
"Megadramon and Gigadramon have begun bombing down Sector A-3!" The other one said. "The Chosen Children have yet to be found!"  
"Keep blasting. Leave nothing standing." Mugendramon said with a chilling lack of tone. Back on the surface, the boys ran as fast as they could until one of the dragons flew over their heads.  
"It's Megadramon!" Koushiro pointed.  
"He's heading towards where the others are!" Tentomon shouted.  
"Damn it…!" Taichi growled. "Hikari!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

A few more minutes of running, we finally returned back to the château where it was still standing.  
"Thank goodness! They're still safe!" Koushiro observed.  
"Hikari!" Taichi shouted as he ran towards the building… when it was hit by a missile and exploded blowing all of us back!  
"That can't be…" Koushiro was speechless.  
"No…" That was all the words I could even mutter.  
"HIKARI!" Taichi screamed. We failed… After everything we went through, all the fighting and close calls… a simple missile took out Hikari, Sora and Takeru.  
"Another missile…!" Koushiro called out. Both Koushiro and Taichi braced themselves while I just gave up. Take us out, you bastards… We'll at least see the others real quick.

"Heaven's Knuckle!" Well, I guess Heaven has got other plans because Angemon's signature tore through the sky and destroyed the missile before it landed! We turned around to see the angel floating right behind us.  
"Angemon!" The Digimon cried out. Then Takeru's head popped out of the hedge that surrounded the property.  
"Taichi-san, Ross-san, Koushiro-san, are you okay?" He asked.  
"Takeru!" Taichi was suddenly relived by his appearance. Soon, Piyomon, Tailmon, and Sora hopped out of the bushes, and Hikari was hanging on to Sora's back. "Hikari!"  
"You're all safe!" Koushiro said.  
"We went for cover as soon as the bombing started." Sora explained.  
"Good call. They wouldn't aim for a bush." I smiled.  
"Taichi-san! I was able to protect everyone!" Takeru beamed with pride.  
"Great job, Takeru!" Taichi praised. Man, that kid has grown up. Almost brings a tear to your eye.

Our little reunion was interrupted when a bright light tore out of the street beside us and that blasted mechanized dinosaur found us!  
"Mugendramon!" Koushiro screamed.  
"Run for it" Taichi ordered. We all ran into the building right near us and hoped that maybe we could somehow escape from those devastating cannons.  
"Now you are finished, Chosen Children. Mugen Cannon!" His shots blew the building off its foundations and cause the whole floor underneath us to give out, sending us all falling into the abyss.  
"Ross-chan! Onii-chan!" I could hear Hikari scream for the both of us.  
"Hikari!" Taichi called back.

The screams continued until everything turned black…

* * *

And that was Chapter 49.

I've got nothing much to say, but dang, Ms. Yagami! I know you're upset but jeez!

Anyways, take care.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	51. Goodbye, Numemon!

Chapter 50! Truth be told this chapter was done in mostly one day. The past two days I was playing some games.

Nothing much to say but shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his review.

Anyways, let's continue with the story.

* * *

 **Chapter 50: Goodbye, Numemon!**

 _Digital World. Date Unknown. Time Unknown.  
_ _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

I finally started to come to my senses. I could hear the sounds of a large fan turning and the sounds of water dripping. There was an echo to the drops so it must have meant that it was some place empty that I was awaking in. Soon, a drip of water splashed on my cheek that slowly made me open my eyes. I started to see where I was and it looked like some sort of underground sewers or perhaps a subway. I saw Takeru's bag where my head must have been, so that meant it he lent it as a pillow. I also saw that I was covered in dried leaves which were used as a blanket for me.

"I…" I tried to say something but found Takeru and Tailmon sitting beside me.  
"You're awake!" "Hikari!" The two of them said.  
"Takeru-kun… Tailmon… I…"  
"How are you feeling?" She asked. I checked my head and felt that it wasn't hot anymore. I also felt much better so I must have shook off my illness for the most part.  
"My fever has gone down. I feel a lot better, too."  
"You've been sleeping for a very long time. I guess that helped you to get better."  
"How long was I asleep?"  
"At least through the night. This place became pitch black once the sun set before light returned due to it being morning."

I looked around to see if there was anyone else around.  
"Where are the others?" I asked. Both their moods dropped. I soon heard a flapping noise through the tunnels.  
"They're back!" Takeru exclaimed.  
"Maybe they found someone!" hoped Tailmon. I looked to see Sora, Piyomon, and Patamon approaching us.  
"Hikari-chan!" Sora noticed that I was wide awake now. "Thank goodness, you're awake."  
"What about Taichi-san and the others?" Takeru questioned. Sora's face did the same thing the others did when I asked them. Sora merely shook her to say no.  
"They weren't anywhere around here." I thought back to according to Takeru and Tailmon was yesterday when Mugendramon attacked us and sent us falling into the abyss, which I guess was this place that now that I look at it; it might actually be an underground city. "Taichi, Ross, and Koushiro-kun must have landed somewhere else."

"Onii-chan… Ross-chan…" I muttered. They went out of their way to help me and all I could do was lay sick in bed. I should've told them something sooner, but I was fearful of us running out of time to save the world. If anything, I've just slowed us down even more… or worse… they could be dead for all we know. No, I can't think that! If we survived falling into this place, then they must have as well!  
"Oh, that's right!" Sora pulled up a bottle that read ZE-22 Y-ZE. "Look, Piyomon found this. It must be the medicine that Taichi and Ross went to find for you, Hikari-chan." She handed me the bottle.  
"This place winds around itself like a maze." Piyomon informed. "But if we all search together now, I'm sure we'll meet the others again in no time."  
"Hey, cheer up." Patamon insisted.  
"Okay. I'll do my best to look for them, too." I told the others with a smile on my face. "After all, I am their little sister."

 _Digital World. R-Day+10. Morning?_

Looks like I may have been right about this place being a subway. Sora informed me that she was encountering the subway systems of the world like Tokyo, New York, and London.  
"This place contains the entire world's subway stations?" I repeated Sora's words.  
"That's what Sora-san says." Takeru said.  
"It's the only explanation I can give, after what we saw on the surface." She guessed. "Stop." She suddenly said.  
"What's wrong?"  
"Quiet. Do you hear something?" Now that it's quiet, I can hear something now, like gears turning or something. "Listen. What is that?"  
"It's coming from over there."  
"Let's take a look." We all followed Sora's lead and ran towards the sounds.  
"Work!" We heard a voice shout followed by the crack of a whip. "Work!" Another crack. "Work, all of you! You Numemon may be weak against the sunlight, but you act as the power source that fuels the urban areas of Spiral Mountain that Mugendramon-sama controls! Work, work, work, and then die!"

We arrived to the sounds and were on a catwalk above a large chamber with a lot of machinery. The sounds were coming from a large teddy bear, but this black and cream colored bear was anything but cuddly; instead, he was the epitome of cruelty. He had a little piece of leather stitched to his arm that read Waru in kanji, which meant evil. He was whipping these poor green slug-like Digimon that he called Numemon, which if I remember the stories Ross and Taichi told me, were kinda disgusting thanks to their throwing poop attacks. Still, all of them were chained up to the machines and being used as slave labor in order to power the city above, with no rest until as that bear said, they drop dead. This was a cruel sight that was making my heart ache.

"Isn't that… Monzaemon?" Takeru recalled that the bear looked like the Mayor of Toy Town on File Island. Ross and Taichi said he only acted mean because of Devimon's Black Gears, but this bear… he was in complete control of his mind, he was just a horrible monster.  
"He's not Monzaemon! He's WaruMonzaemon!" Patamon clarified.  
"WaruMonzaemon?" questioned Sora.  
"He's a Puppet Digimon who looks similar to Monzaemon, but is completely different with his fiendish-looking face! His personality is pure evil and his special attack, Heartbreak Attack, fits his cruel nature." Tailmon explained.  
"So he's working for Mugendramon now…" observed Piyomon.  
"He must be a part of the Metal Empire Army." Sora assumed. I couldn't say a word; I was just about to cry at the sheer atrocity in front of me. I though the Digimon would be above something as cruel as slavery but I guess I was wrong.  
"What's the matter? Don't slack off!" WaruMonzaemon taunted.  
"The Numemon… how sad…" I muttered before I suddenly felt weird and my whole body went limp. I could barely see anything… just a bright flash of light.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"Hikari!" "Hikari-chan!" Tailmon and Sora cried as they grabbed the glowing girl. Hikari's light began to glow even brighter that drew the attention of the Numemon who looked up in awe at the sight they were seeing.  
"H-Hey!" WaruMonzaemon shouted. "Why aren't you working?!" He whipped several Numemon but they just ignored the pain. WaruMonzaemon looked up at the light and realized what it was. "It's you guys!"  
"We have to run!" Sora shouted.  
"Hey, wait!" He chased right after them. The Numemon sadly drooped their heads as they left. However the light soon began to return. Tailmon returned with Hikari and had a claw over her mouth.  
"Numemon…" She whispered, telling them to keep it down as to not draw attention to them. They all nodded.  
"Tailmon… I'll be fine. Free the Numemon for me. Please." Hikari requested.  
"Okay."

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

I taunted WaruMonzaemon and he continued our pursuit of us. Tailmon had managed to get Hikari away and our goal was to keep this bear distracted for as long as possible.  
"Catch us if you can!" I taunted.  
"You little punks!" Okay, now he's getting a bit too close for comfort. Time for Piyomon and Patamon to evolve.  
"Guys! You need to evolve, now!"  
"Right! Piyomon, evolve! Birdramo…n...?" "Patamon, evolve! Angemon…?" Oh this is not good. Our Digimon can't evolve!  
"Maybe you don't have enough energy!" I cried as we kept running as fast as we could.  
"Sora-san, what should we do?!" Takeru asked.  
"Running comes to mind!"

We kept running until we eventually ran into a dead-end. WaruMonzaemon was right behind us and began snicker and doing things with his arms like he was pumping himself up for killing us.  
"Bear Claw!" His claw came right at us and we managed to duck, causing him to smash the wall. The dust cleared and now we were behind him.  
"Run!" We all shouted.  
"Hey! Hold it!" Lucky break! He got his paw stuck in the wall. Or at least it was lucky until he yanked it out and began rolling backwards like a bowling ball, ready to crush us.  
"Sora! I'm flying! I don't think I've ever flown this fast before!" Piyomon cheered.  
"Takeru! So am I! And at such a terrific speed, too!" Patamon cheered as well.  
"You guys!" I yelled, getting them back to reality. "There's no way to look at the right side of this, no matter how hard you try!"

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

Tailmon was quickly able to free the Numemon and we all gathered in a chamber room that somewhat resembled the sanctuary of renaissance church.  
"Hikari-sama…" The Numemon chanted. "Hikari-sama… Hikari-sama…" The light that I was seeing slowly began to die down and now I could see normally again. I smiled at the Numemon as they kept chanting. I was happy that Tailmon and I freed them from their suffering.  
"The Numemon are… worshipping Hikari…" Tailmon muttered to herself.  
"Hikari-sama… Hikari-sama…" The chanting was suddenly interrupted as the door above us opened up and the others ran into the room before falling from the short ledge in the room. They all quickly looked around before looking at me.  
"Hikari-chan?" "Hikari?" They said.

Unfortunately, it appears that Sora and Takeru were unable to truly lose the cruel slave driver as WaruMonzaemon ran into the room.  
"Hey…!" He panted as he was out of breath. "N-Numemon…? What are you twerps doing in here?" The Numemon all had angry looks on their faces and were growling with furious intent at their former master. "What's with that look?! Damn it! Who took off the Numemon's chains?!" I quietly marched forward with determined look on my face.  
"That… was me."  
"Hikari-chan!" "Hikari!" The others called out, probably thinking I was foolish to be walking up to him without any sort of protection.  
"You little worm!" WaruMonzaemon roared.  
"Protect Hikari-sama!" The Numemon yelled and threw themselves on to the bear and attacked him.  
"What do you think you're doing?!"

The Numemon were doing their best but they couldn't beat the bear who was just swiping them away.  
"Numemon…" I whispered before my whole body went limp again. Thankfully, Tailmon was there to catch me.  
"Hikari!"  
"Hey…!" WaruMonzaemon kept fighting off the horde.  
"Protect Hikari-sama!"  
"WaruMonzaemon-sama isn't that weak to be beaten by the likes of you Numemon!" The Numemon tried desperately but they were all defeated and couldn't summon anymore strength.  
"Now you're finished!" He laughed as he was about to finish them off.  
"Numemon…" I muttered and the light returned again.  
"Wh-What's this light?!" WaruMonzaemon shouted.  
"Hikari!" Tailmon cried as she was still holding me up.

All around me the Numemon were slowly getting back up and their energy was returning to them.  
"I feel strength surging within my body!" cried Piyomon.  
"Yeah, the power is overflowing!" Patamon added. I opened my eyes again and looked directly towards WaruMonzaemon. He was going to pay for his terrible acts!  
"Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!" "Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" "Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" WaruMonzaemon just blinked at the force that now appeared before him.  
"Th-That's fine with me!" He stuttered, clearly intimidated by our strength. "After I beat you guys, I'll make you work until you drop dead!" It was an empty threat he was giving.  
"Meteor Wing!" "Heaven's Knuckle!" "Holy Arrow!" The bear panicked and quickly ran out the door as the attacks collided with it, blasting him away.

I looked over to one of the Numemon and picked him up.  
"Are you all right, Numemon?" I asked.  
"Nume! Nume nume nume!" One of them was dancing in Sora's hands.  
"Looks to me like you'll be gaining your strength back soon." Soar said as she put the one she was holding down.  
"Thank you, Hikari-sama!" The Numemon in my hands thanked.  
"Thank goodness." I smiled.  
"Hikari-kun's light…!" Takeru pointed at me before we all looked at the light going towards a corridor.  
"The light will guide us." I informed them.  
"Maybe if we follow this light, we'll find Taichi-san and the others."  
"Yeah." Sora nodded. "Hikari-chan. We'll trust your light to lead the way." I didn't say anything. I just looked forward and started walking with the others following behind. Hopefully, we'll find Ross and Taichi.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

In the control room of the subterranean part of the vast city that Mugendramon ruled, WaruMonzaemon had limped his way back to it in order to inform his master of what occurred in the underground.  
"Mugendramon-sama! Mugendramon-sama!" WaruMonzaemon yelled to the monitor before the image of Mugendramon appeared.  
"WaruMonzaemon. What's the matter?"  
"The Chosen Children and their Digimon are here!"  
"In your area?"  
"I stood up to them bravely so that I could please you, Mugendramon-sama, but they ruthlessly beat me into a pulp." The mechanized dragon could see the bear had been torn up and he clearly had tears in his eyes. However, he was not one to show any sympathy to any of this subjects that failed him.  
"You imbecile! Why didn't you report to me first that you'd found the Chosen Children?"  
"This wound that the children's Digimon gave me is very painful!" The bear clutched his arm. "Mugendramon-sama! Please help me!" He begged.  
"Now that I know where the Chosen Children are…" Mugendramon turned from the screen and walked away. "I have no more use for you." WaruMonzaemon's eyes widened before the control room exploded. The only thing that was left of the bear was his arm which soon disintegrated into data.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

"Hikari! Hikari!" Taichi called out again. After Mugendramon blasted us to this underground city, Ross, Taichi and myself were quick to regroup with each other, but there was no sign of Sora and the others. Taichi was in dire straits as he was desperate to find Hikari, especially when he discovered he lost the medicine. I could tell Ross was worried as well, but he was keeping it together, probably because he need to while Taichi was turning into a wreck. When the whole place went black thanks to night falling on the area, Taichi wanted to keep going, but we couldn't see anything so he begrudgingly stopped and went to sleep. Come the first light, we were already back to the searching but it was exhausting as Agumon just feel over. "Agumon, what are you doing? I'm gonna leave you behind!"  
"I'm sorry, Taichi!"

"Taichi-san. Agumon, Tentomon and Guilmon are tired. Let's take a little break." I suggested.  
"Hikari!" Taichi yelled again, completely ignoring my suggestion.  
"You keep that up and you'll blow out your vocal cords." Ross rolled his eyes. "Look, Koushiro's right. They need to take a short breather. Just give the Digimon ten minutes to catch their breath."  
"The truth is, I'm also tired." I admitted.  
"Hikari! Where are you?" Taichi continued to ignore us.  
"Taichi-san, please compose yourself. I'm sure you're also feeling very tired."  
"Yeah, did you even sleep at all last night?" Ross questioned.  
"Koushiro-han…" Tentomon scratched my leg to get my attention.  
"Hikari is sick!" Taichi said.  
"And I've told you before, I understand that!" I reminded him.  
"If you understand, then quit ordering me around!"

"T-Taichi…" Agumon spoke up.  
"I'm not making any orders at all!"  
"Neither am I, Taichi!" Ross added.  
"What is wrong with you?" Taichi asked Ross. "Do you not ever care what happens to her?!"  
"Don't you even dare suggest that! I care about her well-being as much as you do! The only reason I seem a bit detached is because I'm trying to keep a clear head, one of us has to! You, on the other hand, are running yourself ragged to the point where you're gonna drop dead, and then you won't be much help for Hikari then."  
"Taichi, you're clearly acting like a blockhead." I said. I suddenly regretted those words as Taichi charged me and threw me onto the ground.  
"Say that again?!" He yelled in my face.  
"Get off of him, Taichi!" Ross tried to pull him off of me.  
"This is not time to be fighting!" Guilmon insisted.  
"Calm down, both of you!" Tentomon chimed in as well.

"You bastard!" Taichi was about to punch me in the face so I closed my eyes. After a second, I didn't feel the punch come, instead I felt Taichi pull me closer.  
"Koushiro, Ross." He whispered. Ross got closer to us to hear what he was trying to say. "Someone's trailing us.  
"What?" I questioned.  
"Listen, you two." Soon, we heard the sound of feet marching down the corridors of this place.  
"Taichi-han!" "Taichi!" The Digimon muttered loudly under their breath.  
"I know. Koushiro."  
"Yes?"  
"Pretend to keep fighting while we hide behind that door." He pointed to a metal fence door that was beside us. "Ross, continue to try and break us up."  
"Okay." We both agreed.

I got back up and begun to put on the act.  
"Now you've done it!" I shouted, hopeful that whoever is approaching will hear us and leave us alone.  
"What are you gonna do about it?"  
"Break it up, you morons!" "Stop it! Taichi! Taichi, stop…" "Knock it off!" "Stop it, you two! Koushiro, this is no time to be fighting!" Ross and the Digimon played their parts as well while we all ducked into the hall and closed the gate door. The sounds of the footsteps kept getting closer.  
"Do you think it could be one of Mugendramon's minions?" I asked.  
"No doubt about it." Ross told me.  
"Taichi." "Ross." "Koushiro-han." The Digimon were waiting for the signal to evolve and ambush the uninvited guest.  
"Go for it." Taichi gave the word.

"Tentomon, evolve! Kubuteri…mon…" "Guilmon, evolve! Growm...on…" "Agumon, evolve! Greymon! Grey…mon… Greymon! Greymon! Greymo-!" None of our Digimon were able to evolve and Taichi had to muffle Agumon who kept on trying to make himself evolve.  
"Agumon. You guys must be too tired." Taichi had a somber look on his face as he probably was taking the blame for why our Digimon were tired. "I'm sorry, Koushiro, Ross."  
"Not at all. I know it's only because you're worried about Hikari-san." I said.  
"Yeah, nothing more we really could do about this." Ross forgave.  
"This is my responsibility. I'll go fight it." Taichi got up.  
"Don't be rash!" I told him. "We may be able to win against it if we all work together."  
"We can still get the drop on him." Ross reminded.  
"They're right, Taichi!" "We can still fight!" "You should have more faith in us." The Digimon added.  
"Guys… Okay!"  
"Here he comes." I alerted.  
"Go for the eyes first." Ross suggested.

As soon as the intruder walked past the gate, we immediately hesitated as we suddenly recognized who it was.  
"Andromon!" We all shouted.  
"Chosen Children… It's been some time." He said. We all got out of the gate corridor and back into the main one. "I didn't expect to see you here."  
"That's what we should be saying!" exclaimed Taichi. "Right?" Both Ross and I nodded.  
"Yes. What are you doing here, Andromon?" I asked.  
"Ever since I came underground, I have been acting as a lone soldier in a resistance movement, aiming to free these cities from Mugendramon's control."  
"Ah, a metallic Marquis." Ross chuckled.  
"Through my journey, I've encountered many of Mugendramon's forces and had to fight them in order to continue the war against him and the other Dark Masters. But the fight has been rough. I've seen many good Digimon meet their ends in an attempt to resist the forces that plunge our world into darkness. I had no idea that you children had even returned until word spread about MetalSeadramon and Pinochimon's deaths. I knew then it must have been you. However, I was unaware that you were in this area, so that is why I had thought you were Mugendramon's subordinates."  
"No way!" "Must be hard." "How terrible of you." Our Digimon responded to his story.  
"My apologies." His apology was referring to the fact that considering us foes for a moment.

"Listen, we're looking for a girl named Hikari." Taichi told Andromon of what we were trying to do.  
"She's sick, that's why we need to find her in a hurry." Ross added.  
"We think Sora-san and Takeru-kun are with her, too." I also said.  
"Is that so? Please wait one moment." Andromon lifted his arms and cords came out which connected with the corridor's ceiling. Looks like he was using some sort of ground sensor or heat tracking in order to locate the others.  
"We're counting on you. Hikari-kun is Taichi-san and Ross-san's little sister."  
"Here it comes."  
"You mean Hikari?" "She's coming here?" Are the others with her?" We all had our hopes raised. They were dashed when one of the walls exploded to reveal Mugendramon.

"Here you are, Chosen Children." He coldly stated.  
"Mugendramon!" We all exclaimed.  
"Andromon is with you, eh? Then I get to kill all of you at once." He lifted his head which tore through the ceiling and charged towards us.  
"Find some place to hide!" Andromon advised.  
"Andromon!" We all worried for his safety. We've already seen too many good friends die, and Andromon is probably the strongest ally we've got. Andromon managed to stop the titanic machine but it didn't last long as he was pushed back. "Andromon!" We cried again. We ducked back behind the gate as they went past us before we followed them.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

We had been walking for a while now while following my light. I stopped for a second to retie my shoes when I suddenly felt something wrong and it made me gasp.  
"Hikari-chan, what's the matter?" Sora questioned.  
"They're close."  
"You mean Taichi-san and the others?" Takeru inquired. No, it wasn't them.  
"Here it comes!" Bursting out of the wall was not the others but rather the last being we wanted to see.  
"Mugendramon!" Takeru and Sora shouted. The whole floor suddenly collapsed underneath us but thankfully our Digimon caught us before we could fall further and get hurt. As we descended, we saw right in front of us a truly welcomed sight.  
"Ross-chan! Onii-chan!"  
"Hikari!" They both ran towards us with Koushiro behind them.  
"Sora-san! Takeru-kun!" He said.  
"Koushiro-kun!" Sora shouted. Taichi ran up to me and picked me up before spinning me around.  
"Hikari!"  
"Onii-chan!"

"Thank goodness." Koushiro said.  
"Hey… What happened with Mugendramon?" Sora asked.  
"Andromon is fighting him to protect us." He admitted. "He's been opposing Mugendramon in a one-man resistance movement within these sewers." The two Digimon were beating each other hard before Andromon got knocked to the ground. Thankfully, Birdramon came in and started to hold off the Dark Master while Angemon and Angewomon got Andromon away.  
"Are you all right?" Angewomon asked.  
"Thank you." He groaned in pain.  
"Let us help you." Angemon insisted in assisting him.  
"Let's fight together!" Birdramon suggested.  
"Very well." The android nodded.  
"Meteor Wing!" "Holy Arrow!" "Heaven's Knuckle!" "Spiral Sword!" The attacks engulfed Mugendramon but he slowly came out of the wall of flame unscathed.  
"Mugendramon is an Ultimate-Level, remember?" Koushiro reminded us. Mugendramon launched his counter-attack and his Mugen Cannons wiped away all of our Digimon that was opposing him.

"I didn't even feel that." He laughed. "Now, you guys are next." No, I'm not running away from him! I slowly walked forward towards a villain for the second time today without any sign of fear on my face.  
"Hikari!" "Hikari-chan!" The others called out. The shots that Mugendramon had fired to the surface opened up the light and let it flow into the tunnels. Out of the caverns, the Numemon showed up and began to cover the Dark Master.  
"Hmph, you little pipsqueaks should learn to stop playing around. I suddenly knew what they were going to do.  
"Numemon…" I muttered with fear.  
"You call this fighting back?"  
"Numemon…!" Tears began to fill my eyesight. One blast… and all the Numemon disintegrated into dust. "NUMEMON!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Hikari fell over after she screamed out for the Numemon who all died in a desperate bid to stop Mugendramon. Even being horribly out-matched and slaughtered… they still were willing to do what they did.  
"Hikari!" Taichi ran forward while Agumon was about to as well but he suddenly froze.  
"Power is surging through me! Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" WarGreymon charged right ahead while Taichi was trying to help Hikari.  
"Hikari! Wake up! Hikari!" He said as I ran over to them. The tunnels were filled with the sound of WarGreymon roaring as he made his charge. His claws glowed orange as both he and Mugendramon clashed. WarGreymon appeared behind him before he suddenly devolved all the way back to Koromon who now had a scar on his face.  
"Koromon…" Hikari muttered as she woke back up.  
"Now you're finished!" The mechanized dinosaur said.  
"I don't think so!" Koromon defied. "I have Taichi, Hikari… and everyone else on my side!"

As it turns out, that attack actually did more damage than Mugendramon thought. Those Dramon Destroyers that WarGreymon possessed proved it as Mugendramon slowly split into pieces before those pieces disintegrated. We did it once more. Mugendramon was destroyed… now there's only one more Dark Master. The light from the outside glowed even brighter and the whole place started to slowly crumble.  
"Now that the ruler of the cities, Mugendramon, has been defeated… this area will now commence to deconstruct." Andromon said.  
"Don't worry." Sora assured Takeru. "We're all together."  
"Okay."  
"It will soon be too dangerous for us to be here. We should escape as quickly as we can." Koushiro reminded.  
"To the skies, everyone!" I cheered.  
"Yeah! Let's do that!" Taichi agreed and we all made our escape before being swallowed up by the receding part of the mountain.

"Now that the cities have disappeared… My fight is over." Andromon informed.  
"Onii-chan. When we get down, can I make a grave marker for the Numemon?" Hikari asked Taichi as they were being carried by Angewomon.  
"Yeah." He said.  
"We'll all help." Sora offered next to me as we and Andromon hung onto Birdramon. We all nodded.  
"You're next, Piemon." Taichi looked up to the peak of the mountain. The last Dark Master remains and more than likely will be the toughest of them all.

But we can't fail, we will not…

* * *

And that was Chapter 50. Man, the Japanese dub ending, the music got bombastic, you think they'd save that for the final episode or something.

Anyways, I haven't got much to say after this one so see you later.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	52. A Woman's Fight! LadyDevimon!

Chapter 51!

Other than a shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his review, I've really got nothing to say.

Let's get on with the show.

* * *

 **Chapter 51: A Woman's Fight! LadyDevimon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+10. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

The past week has actually gone pretty well. After we mourned for Leomon's death, we headed on our way to the Village of Beginnings. Though Ogremon kept telling us that the place was essentially dead, I wanted to at least see for myself before we'd move on from there. Along the way, we managed to find some allies and they were old friends of ours from File Island. We ran into Yukidarumon, Meramon, and Raptordramon, though we didn't know who he was until he mentioned that Ross and Guilmon had freed him from a Black Gear the day Guilmon first evolved into Growmon. We were beginning to march up a hill where we could see a city nearby us. I kinda wanted to check it out, but the village wasn't that way so we were going to have to ignore it. Good thing too, we felt a large earthquake before seeing the whole city receded away from Spiral Mountain.

"The city is disappearing!" I observed.  
"Taichi and the others must have beaten another Dark Master." Jou said.  
"Agumon and the others sure are working hard!" Gomamon believed.  
"That makes three down, right? Now there's only one more left." Palmon informed.  
"That would be Piemon." Ogremon told us.  
"He's right. Mugendramon was the controller of the cities, so Piemon would be the final Dark Master." Raptordramon sighed, as if he was worried about what was coming.  
"The last Dark Master who controls the darkness…" Meramon looked over the hill behind us.  
"I've heard that he's the strongest of the Dark Masters." Yukidarumon recounted the rumors he heard.  
"All right. In any case, we should gather more people before we meet up again with Taichi." Jou explained the plan as he marched up the hill. The rest of us followed close behind.

"Hey!" Ogremon turned to Yukidarumon as we walked up the hill. "Stay back!" I guess being so close to the snow Digimon was making him cold. "You're too cold!" I was right. However, as he picked up speed, he almost walked into Meramon. "Ah! _You're_ too hot! Man, what is wrong with you guys?!" Maybe he should walk next to Raptordramon, he'd be just right. I panted as I tried to keep up pace but all this walking over hills and mountains has just exhausted all of my energy, though I think I'm doing better in terms of stamina than I was when I first arrived into the Digimon world. My exhaustion had caught up with me and I sat on my knees.

"I'm tired… I can't walk anymore… I'm sleepy… and I'm hungry!" I moaned.  
"The princ- I mean, Mimi is hungry, ribbit." Gekomon quickly caught his words about calling me Princess.  
"Wait right here, tama. We'll come back with food soon, tama!" Otamamon explained.  
"I didn't say that because I wanted you to serve me!" I didn't want these guys following my every word again like last time. The last thing we need is for my Crest not to shine again, which apparently can happen considering what went on with Yamato during that fight with Kiwimon.  
"We know, ribbit! Don't worry about it, ribbit!"  
"We just want to make ourselves useful, tama. Wait right here, tama." They both walked into the bushes to try to find me some food.  
"Hey, I'll come with you!" Yukidarumon followed them.

"Everyone is being really nice, don't you think?" I asked Palmon.  
"That's because they all like you, Mimi. Right?" She questioned the others. The others could only stare before Ogremon, Meramon, and Raptordramon turned their heads away and rubbed the back of theirs nervously.  
"Uh, I think I'll take a nap." "Me, too." "I should probably stand guard."  
"Jou." Gomamon got Jou's attention. "Your face is red." Jou's eyes widened in embarrassment.  
"Wh-What are you talking about?! You must be seeing things!" He yelled. Both Palmon and I laughed at that.

"Mimi! Sorry for the wait, ribbit!" After a few hours of resting, Gekomon, Otamamon and Yukidarumon returned and brought with them a whole feast of food!  
"Wow!" I cried in amazement as I picked up a whole liter of soda. "You even brought soda! Oh, it's not cold."  
"Give that to me." I handed it to Yukidarumon. He clutched it to his chest before handing it back. "Here you go." He made it cold immediately!  
"Sizzling!" Meramon was holding some fish that he fried. "Come get them while they're still hot!"  
"Hey, you guys are good to have around!" Ogremon admitted.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

 _"Jou. You don't have to force yourself to become a doctor."  
"But Dad wants me to be one…"  
"Dad has his own opinions. You've got to find your path on your own."_ I quickly woke up after dreaming about being in Big Sight during Vamdemon's invasion and talking with Shin.  
"Just a dream…" I said to myself. I looked over to see everyone asleep after we had our meal. I got up and walked over to where Ogremon was standing guard. "Um, Ogremon? Are you on watch duty? We can switch."  
"Me, switch with you?" He questioned. "You sure you can handle it?" I got upset with that suggestion.  
"Hey, even someone like me can keep watch!"  
"Really? Okay, it's all yours." He walked away where he soon planed on falling asleep like the others. I stared out towards the valley this hill overlooked.  
"Find my own path by myself, huh?" I said to myself again. My thoughts turned to Yamato's words about him finding his own path as well. "Yamato… Were you able to find it? Your own path…"

 _Spiral Mountain Peak, Digital World. R-Day+11. Morning.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We arrived close to the peak of Spiral Mountain late last night and took refuge in a cave with Andromon standing guard. With his resistance against Mugendramon ended, he decided to come with us to deal with the final Dark Master, which was quite welcomed. We woke up fairly early but it was hard to tell what time it was due to it being dark and cloudy all the time here. It's like how I would imagine the skies of Mordor described by Tolkien. We walked out of the cave and helped Hikari make a grave for the Numemon. We all said a few words before most of us went up a small hill while Hikari and Takeru were still praying for the Numemon. It was actually a bit of a strange ceremony. Hikari was having a Christian style funeral while Takeru was preforming a Shinto style one. Either way through, those Numemon deserved last rites.

"Numemon-san. I will never forget what you've done for us." Hikari prayed.  
"We'll do our best so you can be reborn safely in the Village of Beginnings." Takeru added. Andromon informed us that the Village of Beginnings was destroyed by the Dark Masters and that if we want any of our friends who were killed to be revived, we'd have to destroy Piemon and restore the Digital World for that to happen.  
"Amen." Hikari finished.  
"Where are we?" Taichi questioned as we finished getting over the hill.  
"Hey, look!" Sora pointed ahead. Across a long rocky valley was a dome like structure in the middle of the valley.  
"I think we've found Piemon's lair." I said.  
"No doubt about that." agreed Koushiro.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Piemon chuckled as he viewed the Chosen Children through his telescope in his observatory.  
"How delightful to see the Chosen Children come this far." Piemon laughed. "I should give them a nice reward for their efforts."  
"Piemon-sama." A female voice called out from the darkness. "Please allow me to undertake that role."  
"Try not to be rude. Give them the highest standard of our hospitality."  
"As you wish!" The sound of the voice's laughter filled the halls of the castle.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"Okay! We've slept well and we've eaten our fill… Let's move on with renewed energy!" Mimi excitedly proclaimed.  
"Thank goodness! Mimi is cheerful again!" Palmon was relieved to see Mimi refreshed. At least she's doing better than me. I kept solemnly walking along with the others but my mind was somewhere else.  
"Jou, what's wrong? You look pretty serious." Gomamon asked, clearly he could tell that something was wrong with me.  
"O-Oh, no… It's nothing…" Everyone stopped ahead of me and Mimi's mood quickly darkened.  
"What… is this place?" She questioned. Ahead looked to be a place that had a bunch of large children's blocks, but they were all torn up and grayed, just like all the plant life around us.  
"This is the Village of Beginnings as it is now." Ogremon told us. The whole place looked like utter hell. I never actually saw the village as I was with Sora when we were separated by Devimon, but I could tell this was all wrong.

We walked along a field that was filled with Digieggs but they were all grayed as well and probably dead.  
"How terrible… Even the Digieggs…" Mimi was appalled at the travesty the Dark Masters committed. The quietness of the area was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a familiar instrument. I stopped and looked over to the west. "What's wrong, Jou-senpai?"  
"Just now, I thought I heard-" The sound returned again, and I could tell that was instrument was none other than a harmonica! "I knew it!" I started running towards the sound of it.  
"Hey, Jou!" Gomamon chased after me.  
"Could that have been…?" Mimi thought.  
"Yamato's…" Palmon believed.  
"Let's go!" The girls along with the others quickly followed me.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"All set." Koushiro alerted as he plugged in some cords into his laptop that were also connected to Andromon.  
"What are you doing, Koushiro?" inquired Guilmon.  
"Well, take a look. Whenever you are ready, Andromon."  
"Understood." He said. Andromon spread his arms out across the ground and soon the screen showed a whole wire frame map of Spiral Mountain.  
"Wow…" Koromon was impressed.  
"That's Spiral Mountain." Piyomon observed.  
"Yes. Nothing less from Koushiro-han." Tentomon was proud of his human partner.  
"And the place we are located right now… is up here." Koushiro said as a red dot blipped on the map at the top of the mountain.  
"Hey, that's-" Taichi pointed out.  
"We're all the way at the top." exclaimed Hikari.  
"Well, remember what Chuumon said?" Ross asked.  
"Yeah, he said the Dark Masters live on top of Spiral Mountain." Takeru recalled.  
"Then… What we're seeing over there is…" I looked back at the dome.  
"Their base." Taichi finished my sentence. "Ross, Koushiro, looks like you guys were right."

Suddenly, we heard a rapid beeping noise coming from the computer and it probably wasn't good.  
"Someone's here." Andromon informed. "Be careful." Laughter soon rang out across the valley and this black creature flew above us. This Digimon looked human in nature though she had red eyes, two torn up wings and was wearing leather across her body that had been stitched together. She also had some sort of smaller creature with one arm attached to the leather on her neck. She actually looked like Angewomon if she fell.  
"Welcome, you adorable little boys!" She said. Okay, I don't think any of the guys were expecting to be hit on when we woke up this morning. Both me and Hikari had very angry looks on our faces as we did not appreciate her hitting on our friends.  
"I don't think I like that Digimon." I growled.  
"She looks like a bitch." Hikari sneered. We all quickly turned our attention to her upon hearing those words. Taichi looked back to Ross with his eyebrow raised.  
"I can't help it if she wants to watch R-15 and R-18 movies with us!" Ross tried to defend.

"She is one of the Nightmare Soldiers. LadyDevimon." Andromon told us.  
"You must be tired, you poor things." She taunted. "Why don't you lie down and rest… for eternity!" Koromon hopped right at her.  
"Koromon!" Taichi called out.  
"Koromon, evolve! AGUMON! Baby Flame!" The attack did nothing to that witch. She simply swiped him with her red clawed hand and sent him falling back to the ground.  
"Agumon!" Taichi ran over to him.  
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" "Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON!" "Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON!" "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON!" "Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!" All four flying Digimon took to the skies and surrounded LadyDevimon while Growmon awaited on the ground.  
"I'll take good care of all of you." LadyDevimon laughed. "Darkness Wave!" She launched a wave of bats similar to Vamdemon at all our Digimon.

Her attack blew back all of our flying Digimon who grunted in pain from the powerful wave.  
"Spiral Sword!" "Exhaust Flame!" Both Andromon and Growmon launched their attacks but she merely swung her arm and destroyed both projectiles.  
"Mega Blaster!" "Meteor Wing!" Once again, the same result. She just laughed at deflecting the attacks.  
"You think those attacks are enough against me?"  
"Heaven's Knuckle!" Now, if memory shows, Holy attacks against a creature of darkness like her would do some serious harm to her. That's probably the reason why she flew out of the way of the attack.  
"Holy Arrow!" LadyDevimon turned and moved but the arrow grazed her side and she winced in pain. She growled and charged right at Angewomon and struck her with her claw hand.  
"Okay, I'm joining them-" Agumon tried to run forward but Taichi stopped him.  
"Wait, not yet! You stay back, Agumon!"  
"Why, Taichi? I can take her down in an instant at my Ultimate-Level!"  
"Koushiro, can you look up her data?"

"O-Okay. LadyDevimon. A female Fallen Angel Digimon. She's a Perfect-Level. Her special attack, Darkness Wave, unleashes a countless number of bats that destroy her opponents." Koushiro explained.  
"A Perfect-Level…" Taichi muttered. "All right. Sora and Takeru, I want you to go with Birdramon and Angemon to find Yamato and the others and bring them back." Huh? He wants us to leave now?  
"But they're fighting right now." I tried to argue as the fighting continued to rage above.  
"No. The rest of our Digimon should be able to take her down. And if the situation calls for it, we always have WarGreymon as our trump card."  
"I'm a trump card!" Agumon proudly chuckled.  
"What's important to keep in mind that, if this place really is their base, then we're coming closer to facing the last Dark Master.  
"Piemon." Koushiro said with disgust.  
"Yeah. He should be there. We don't know when he'll show up, and that's a problem. What we do know, though, is that he's incredibly strong."

Our memories were probably thinking back to when we first encountered Piemon and how he utterly crushed WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.  
"So before Piemon shows up, you want us to bring Onii-chan and the others here, right?" Takeru figured it out.  
"It is exactly as Taichi-san says. I'm surprised that he has thought that far ahead!" Koushiro admitted his surprise.  
"Yeah, thinking ahead and planning a strategy. That's something we've been rarely using ever since we first arrived at File Island." Ross reminded.  
"Taichi…" I muttered to him.  
"It's just like soccer." He continued. "I figured it out after Yamato, Mimi-chan, and Jou left… Just fighting with reckless abandon like I'd used to isn't enough. We can't allow ourselves to make any more sacrifices." Those words really hit something with me.  
"Taichi…" I smiled. He had become a true leader now and the one we all knew he could be.

"Holy Arrow!" LadyDevimon avoided another attack and laughed at the Ultimate-Level angel. "Leave this to me!" She shouted to Angemon and Birdramon. Angemon nodded.  
"We're counting on you!" The two of them flew back towards us. However, while Angewomon was distracted, LadyDevimon kicked her in the back of the head and sent her crashing into some rocks.  
"Now you're in for it!" Angewomon angrily told the witch. The two started throwing some punches while Angemon picked up Takeru and I hoped onto one of Birdramon's talons as we flew away to find the others.  
"Those words you've just said, Taichi… I'll be sure to pass them along to Yamato-kun, Mimi-chan, and Jou-senpai!" I promised.  
"Okay! Hurry!"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

We ran towards the harmonica sounds down by the river but to our disappointment, it wasn't Yamato playing but rather the Village of Beginning's caretaker, Elecmon.  
"It was you." Jou said to him as the Digimon stopped playing. "I was so sure it was someone else…"  
"Now that the Village of Beginnings is in shambles, I've lost my purpose in life." He depressingly sighed. "Say. How are Takeru and Patamon doing? Are they well?"  
"Y-Yeah, they are."  
"We're just working separately from them for now." Palmon told him.  
"I see. That's good to hear." Elecmon looked relieved to hear that. Ross and Guilmon were also with Takeru and Patamon the day they arrived in the village but he probably knew that the older pair could take care of themselves. I felt sorry that Elecmon had practically lost everything and decided that we should allow him to come with us.

"Hey." I walked up. "Why don't you come with us?" His attention quickly turned back towards us. "The village won't turn back to normal until we beat the Dark Masters, right? Neither will the Digieggs."  
"We're gathering up comrades for that purpose." added Palmon.  
"B-Beat the Dark Masters?" Elecmon questioned with his eyes widened by surprise. "That's a pretty amazing thing you're thinking about!"  
"We're not just thinking about it! We've already begun to oppose them!" Jou countered.  
"Takeru and Patamon are fighting, too!" Gomamon explained. Elecmon's ears drooped upon hearing that.  
"Takeru and Patamon, too?" He turned his head and looked to be in deep thought. "I see! Then I can't lose face to them! I'm coming along!" I giggle upon hearing that. That didn't take much convincing. "You guys look like you need all the help you can get, anyway." Ross and Takeru did mention that he had a bit of an ego, which Ogremon took some offence to that.  
"Say that again?"

"By the way, that harmonica you're holding…" Jou pointed to the instrument.  
"This?" He walked up with the harmonica in his hands. "I found it lying on the beach here."  
"You found it? Can I take a look?" He took it out of Elecmon's hands and looked closely at it. "It does belong to Yamato!"  
"Then he must be around here!" I guessed. I turned and looked across the wide river. "But… Up ahead is…"  
"Maybe he swam." Gomamon theorized.  
"Now that you mention it… I saw a swan boat leaving from here last night." Our eyes widened upon hearing Elecmon saying that. "I thought it was one of the Nightmare Soldiers fooling around, though."  
"A swan boat?" I questioned.  
"That clinches it! It must have been Yamato!" Jou shouted.

Everything went quite after that as nobody said a word for a whole minute. Jou was just staring towards the other side of the river.  
"Hey, Mimi-kun." He finally said something.  
"What?"  
"We've gathered a lot of friends who will help us, so… you'll be okay without having me and Gomamon around, right?"  
"What do you mean? Are you going somewhere, Jou-senpai?" Was he planning on leaving me?  
"I'm… going after Yamato."  
"Then we should all go together!" I augured.  
"No. Only Gomamon and I will go."  
"Why?!"  
"Everyone should take their own path."  
"Our own path?" What does he mean by that?

"Your path is to find more Digimon who will join us. Taichi's path, along with the others, is to continue the fight- But no, we can't let them keep it up alone. I have to fight as well. But… I'm not that strong, and there's no way Gomamon will become his Ultimate-Level. So, that made me think the two of us will only drag the others down if we stayed with them. But there must be something out there that only I can do. I'm sure Yamato grew aware of that, too. That's why I'm going after him!" He then put his hand on the back of his head. "Er, so, that's what I had in mind, but… do you think it's a good idea?"  
"Of course it is!" Gomamon answered. "It's what _you_ decided, Jou!"  
"Jou-senpai…" I tried to convince him to stay but Ogremon walked next to me, interrupting what I was about to say.  
"Let him go. He may not look like it, but the guy's got plenty of backbone." I had to smile upon hearing that. He was right. Jou has certainly come a long way since we all first met him. He would've turned tail and run a while back but now… he was determined to go along with this and I shouldn't stop him.  
"Yeah…" I conceded.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Darkness Wave!" LadyDevimon threw out another one of her attacks that Angewomon tried hard to hold back. This fight with this witch has been dragged out for a while now. LadyDevimon used the bats as a distraction and appeared behind Angewomon before swinging her around by her hair. "Come on, come on, come on!" She taunted. Okay, she needs help now, and it looks like I wasn't the only one to think that.  
"Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!" "Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!" Both Digimon flew towards the women before LadyDevimon let go and sent Angewomon flying into AtlurKabuterimon's arms.  
"Are you okay?" He asked.  
"Let me go!" Angewomon yelled. "It's on now, bitch!" She charged forward and slapped LadyDevimon in the face.  
"What's it to you?!" She responded back with a slap as well, oh my goodness, it's devolved to this.

"U-Um…" Taichi didn't know what to say.  
"I'm pretty sure Dad wouldn't allow me to see this." I said.  
"Women are pretty scary when they're angry…" Koushiro watched nervously.  
"Don't lose to her! Get her! Take her down!" Hikari yelled as she pumped her fists like she was a cheerleader. Boy, she's energized today.  
"Don't get full of yourself!" LadyDevimon threw a hard slap that sent Angewomon straight to the rocky ground below. "I've got you now!" Her claw hand morphed into a spear that she planned to impale her with. "Darkness Spear!" Thankfully, AtlurKabuterimon flew in and the spear snapped on his shell. She shouted in pain before she turned to see MegaloGrowmon behind her.  
"Atomic Blaster!" The shot exploded right in LadyDevimon's face, temporarily disorienting her.  
"Hey, time out! Get out of my way right now!" Angewomon roared at AtlurKabuterimon.  
"Oh, sorry." He got out of the way and Angewomon flew back in the air once more.  
"Playtime is over. Prepare yourself!"  
"Whatever! Darkness-"  
"Heaven's Charm!" The energy cross flew right towards the fallen angel and hit her causing her to scream as disintegrated.  
"P-Piemon-sama...!"  
"All right!" Hikari cheered as our Digimon flew back to us and devolved back to their lower forms.  
"Koushiro-han. You don't see any marks on my back, do you?" Tentomon asked.

"Someone's coming." Taichi alerted.  
"Eh?" We all said as we turned to see someone walking slowly towards our position from the dome. I walked up to Taichi as he pulled out his telescope.  
"It's that who I think it is?" I asked.  
"It is. It's Piemon." Great, didn't think we'd get much in a reprieve.  
"The last Dark Master." said Koushiro.  
"All right. Go get him, Agumon." Taichi gave the word.  
"Okay, Taichi! Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!" WarGreymon stood close to us and held his ground.  
"Be careful. He's tough!"  
"What's the plan, Taichi?" I inquired.  
"We hold him off as long as we can. Give Sora and Takeru the time they need to find Yamato and the others and bring them back." Well, Piemon is taking his time. It might be a half-hour before he even reaches us at his rate. I just hope we can do as Taichi suggests and delay that jester.

The only question was, would the others get to us in time…?

* * *

And that was Chapter 51.

That fight... boy, the only thing that plays in my head these days is that episode of Billy and Mandy with that mermaid fight and Frank Welker's singing.  
 _"Catfight! Under the sea! I've got two fine ladies fighting over me!"_

Now if you'll excuse me, Alton Brown is back with Good Eats on the Cooking Channel and then I'm gonna watch a playthrough of my favorite Call of Duty game, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, so see ya next time.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	53. The Clown from Hell! Piemon!

Chapter 52! Boy, we're winding down this story.

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his fervent support to this story. And to laughing at the joke I sent him that will be in Chapter 55.

Anyways, I'm pretty bummed out due to terrible playing in professional sports, so let's get on with the cheering up... with severe monster violence.

* * *

 **Chapter 52: The Clown from Hell! Piemon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+11. Late Morning.  
_ _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

I'll be the first one to admit that I didn't feel that great leaving Mimi behind on the other side of the river while me and Ikkakumon swam across. I did feel that searching for Yamato and finding my own path was something that I had to do myself, but now that I'm across… no, I made my decision. I've got to stick with it. I looked at Yamato's harmonica that I was clutching in my hand. If he was here last night, then he couldn't be too far ahead. I can only hope I find him soon and not wind up getting lost myself.

"Jou, look!" Gomamon got my attention and ran ahead of me. "It's Yamato's boat! He's gotta be around here!" He shouted.  
"But we don't know when he left that boat here, and we're not even sure that it was Yamato who used it in the first place." I had to be honest about that. The odds were in our favor of at least Yamato using the boat but we can't be too sure.  
"Don't worry, we'll find him! Yamato's gotta be thinking it's about time he came back to join us, anyway!" Is a week really enough time for one to clear their thoughts and find their way? Well, either way, we have to find him.  
"You're right. I'm the one who decided to go look for him. I can't be thinking twice about this now!"  
"That's it! You've gotten considerably manly these days, Jou."  
"What's that supposed to mean?" I started to poke his cheek. "Are you saying I wasn't manly before?" We both soon began laughing.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Dramon Killer!" After waiting for about half an hour for Piemon to get closer, Taichi gave the word to WarGreymon to attack which he tried using his claws to stab the Dark Master but he kept dodging each strike. Eventually, WarGreymon got tired of the misses and kicked Piemon square in the chest sending him back into the base of his own castle. They had pushed so far back we had to catch up with them and now we were within a kilometer of Piemon's lair.  
"He got him!" Taichi gave a small cheer. Out of the dust we could hear that familiar laugh. Yeah, didn't think we kill him, Taichi once more declared victory too soon.  
"Do the Chosen Children rely on childish attacks such as this to get by?"  
"What?" Do you really have to act that surprised Taichi?  
"I am sorely disappointed. I thought you'd have a bit more mettle."  
"If we could, we'd sure show him our mettle." I muttered to others, upset that only WarGreymon was the only one who could really fight the jester.  
"WarGreymon's attacks don't work at all!" Koushiro alerted.  
"Onii-chan, are you okay?" Hikari asked. Taichi just knuckled down his emotions had angrily stared at Piemon.  
"I'm fine."

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

Angemon devolved back into Patamon so we were now hanging onto Birdramon's talon high above the Digital World in an effort to find my brother and the others and reunite with Taichi and his group who maybe are currently fighting Piemon as we speak. Yamato especially since Gabumon was the only other Digimon of ours that could reach the Ultimate-Level.  
"The Digivice isn't reacting to anything." Sora held out her Digivice as she tried to track down the others.  
"The power of darkness must be too strong." Patamon believed. It would make sense that such damage to the Digital World could be affecting our Digivices. It's been happening ever since we've returned to the Digimon world under the Dark Master's reign.  
 _"_ _How exactly are we supposed to find them when the Digimon world is so big?"_ Sora thought to herself.

"Sora-san." I tried to get her attention while keeping an eye on the ground for any sign of the others.  
"What?"  
"Do you think we'll find my brother? And the others?" I have the Crest of Hope, so I have to hope that my brother and the others will be found in time, but I wanted to know what Sora thought. However, she didn't answer my question; rather, she clutched her Digivice closer in her chest. "Sora-san?"  
"We have to find them no matter what. If we don't, we'll all-" It sounds like she's focused on the down side of things and what we could lose if we don't succeed. We can't think like this.  
"Sora-san!" I tried to snap her out of her tailspin. "Are you okay?"  
"Sorry about that! I'm fine. We'll find them." She smiled, but I get the feeling that might be a lie. I smiled back. Yeah, we'll find them. I just hope Sora doesn't fall apart like Yamato did. And I really hope Yamato has found what he's looking for. We really need him.  
 _"_ _I have to bring back our friends. If I don't, we won't be able to defeat Piemon. If I don't… We won't be able to prevent this world from being destroyed."_ Sora thought to herself again.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

"Brave Tornado!" WarGreymon spun towards Piemon but that clown just jumped over him and he smashed into the rock wall behind him. Piemon chuckled as WarGreymon walked out of the dust, his armor now scuffed.  
"He's strong!" cried Koushiro.  
"Onii-chan!" I shouted at him.  
"Stay back, you guys!" Taichi told us.  
"Why, Onii-chan?!"  
"Wait until Yamato and the others have come back! You've just fought with LadyDevimon. You need to regain your strength!"  
"Yeah, but I don't know if WarGreymon will last that much longer!" Ross expressed his worry.  
"Just trust me! They'll return!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Somewhere in the Digital World, Yamato and Gabumon were walking through a cave. The past week had gone downhill for Yamato. While he left the others in an effort to discover himself, all the events had finally caught up with him. He felt great shame in the fact that he got into that fight with Taichi and had Gabumon fight Agumon at the worst possible time as they need to fight the Dark Masters. He was also ashamed with the fact that he had been a terrible friend, considering he was the one who possessed the Crest of Friendship. Through this journey, he hoped he'd able to figure things out, but he just couldn't figure it out. With the failure of not discovering himself along with the shame of his actions, he had now fallen into a deep depression.

"Yamato… There's something creepy about this cave." Gabumon feared. "Let's hurry and find an exit."  
"Yeah. You're right." Yamato muttered.  
 _"_ _I was able to protect myself all on my own this time!"_ Those words Takeru said were really the tipping point to it all.  
"I…" Yamato came to a stop.  
"What is it, Yamato?"  
"I kept saying that Takeru needed me… but the truth is, I needed him."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I found my place by thinking that Takeru needed me. But… Takeru has everyone else supporting him. And Taichi acted more like a real big brother than I did."  
"What are you talking about?" Yamato begun to walk further into the cave. " _You_ are Takeru's big brother, Yamato!"  
"I don't have any right to be a big brother. All I did was use Takeru so that I could feel secure in my place as his brother. I wanted to stay convinced that Takeru didn't have anyone else but me."

Unbeknownst to the both of them, a dark aura had been following the two of them.  
"That's why I got so mad at Taichi." Yamato put his back to the cave wall and slid down until he was sitting. "I felt like he was trying to take Takeru away from me. Taichi is decisive and he's a good leader overall… Most of all, he treats Takeru like an adult."  
"Now what's brought this on, Yamato?" Yamato buried his head in his lap. "You have so many good things about you that belong only to you!"  
"I thought Taichi was tactless and shallow-brained… but I'm even worse."  
"Yamato…" Gabumon turned to see the aura. "Yamato! This place is kind of weird!" The aura passed over Yamato and his eyes became empty.  
"I'm hopeless." He said as the aura surrounded him. "I can't go back to being everyone's friend again."  
"Don't be like that! If they don't have you, Yamato- If the nine of you aren't together, this world is doomed!" Gabumon tried to talk Yamato out of this spell but Yamato was just sinking deeper in his mind.  
"They don't need me. It wouldn't matter if I'm there or not."  
"Yamato, get a hold of yourself!"  
"Forget it. Just leave me alone."  
"How can you say that?!" No response. "Yamato…" Gabumon had tears in his eyes.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my leg that came from Gabumon biting me!  
"Ouch! What are you doing?!" I swatted him away.  
"There's only one of you in this world, Yamato!" cried Gabumon. "Am I right?! So then, how can you keep comparing yourself to Taichi?! Of course you two are different! You're the only one who's Takeru's real big brother! It doesn't make sense to think that Taichi is more like one that you are!"  
"Gabumon…" I turned from him.  
"Besides… Besides, if you were gone, Yamato, then what do _I_ do?! I've waited in this world forever just so I could meet you, and only you!"  
"Gabumon." I turned back after hearing that.  
"Do you really want to be alone, Yamato? Then I'll leave this place so you'll never have to see me again! But only if that's what you really want me to do!" My mind felt so clouded, but I didn't want Gabumon to abandon me.  
"No. When I said I wanted to be alone… that was a lie. I was just trying to make myself look good. It's what I always do. I put up an image to stop others from getting too close to me." I admitted.

"But the truth is…" I thought back to the divorce once more which is where all of this started. "The truth is, I felt really lonely. I kept thinking that I could never let anyone see me cry. If I was going to be alone, then I wanted to see myself as a mature person who could do everything on my own. But… all I wanted to do was cry."  
"Yamato…"  
"I hate being alone." I confessed.  
"You have me!" Gabumon hugged me. "You can depend on me just like how I depend on you! If you do that, I'm sure I'll feel even more motivated!"  
"That's right. Gabumon… I came this far because I had you. Even when I'm lost inside this dark cave, you're still right by my side." I am such a fool for thinking such stupid things like being alone. "I was never really alone at all."  
"Yamato…"  
"I have my friends… And I have Takeru, Dad, and Mom, too." I thought back to when we were all together before we left for the Digimon world again, we were whole once more for a while, and that was what I was truly wanting. To not be alone. I'm sure I can look happier the next time we see each other again, Dad… Mom!

"Yamato, look!" I looked to see a swirling black vortex near the roof of the cave.  
"What is that?" I questioned.  
"It was coiling around you all this time." It was?! "Didn't you notice?"  
"Not at all."  
"I think it was trying to get inside your heart, Yamato."  
"It's pitch-black." I observed. The longer I looked at it and thought about it, it all made sense. "I get it. It's the same pitch-black feelings that I was experiencing just now. But you're wrong."  
"About what?"  
"That thing wasn't trying to get in me. It pulled out the darkness that I had inside. I think I've been carrying that darkness somewhere deep inside my heart all this time."  
"I see."

"My loneliness is what pulled this darkness towards my heart… but things are different now! After all, I'm not alone anymore!" I smiled at Gabumon.  
"That's right!" I got on my knee and grabbed Gabumon's hand.  
"Thank you, Gabumon."  
"Yamato! I've always, always wanted to thank _you_ ever since we met!" I hugged him.  
"You stuck by my side but I never realized that until now. I've always had you!" He happily chuckled in my arms. "You might have to put up with a lot from me now on, but I'm counting on you!"  
"I can handle it!"  
"You won't hear me whining anymore."  
"That's okay! You can complain to me all you want."  
"Okay, then. If I ever complain, I'll whisper it to you very softly." We both laughed after that. I was truly lucky to have such a loyal friend like Gabumon. Suddenly, the whole world around us brightened as the cave just suddenly vanished.  
"The two of us were caught inside a large cave of darkness." Gabumon looked around.  
"We were lost in it all this time."

"Hey!" A familiar voice yelled out. I turned to see a certain, bluenette, glasses wearing kid running right down the hill towards us. "Yamato!"  
"Jou!" I shouted in surprise. He ran up to me and leaned over as he ran out of breath and had to catch it. Once he got his breath back, he smiled and started to laugh.  
"See, look at that!" He turned to Gomamon. "I told you we'd find him!"  
"I never said we wouldn't!"  
"What's all this about?" I asked.  
"The whole time I was walking here, I kept telling myself that I'll be fine as long as I kept earnestly believing in the path I chose."  
"I see."  
"Oh yeah, here." He dug into his pocket and pulled out my harmonica that I had left behind. "It's your harmonica, isn't it?" I took it out of his hands. I don't even know why I left it but I'm glad he found it and returned it.  
"Thanks."

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I don't have any clue what Taichi's overall plan is here but WarGreymon is taking a serious beating and Piemon doesn't look any the weaker.  
"Trump Sword!" Piemon jumped up and threw a wave of swords at WarGreymon, who managed to deflect two of them, but two more cut him across the unarmored parts of his body and he winced in pain. The swords then turned back around and struck him again, forcing him on one knee.  
"WarGreymon is-" I tried to say something but I couldn't finish that sentence.  
"No! I can't watch!" Hikari covered her eyes.  
"Taichi! He's falling apart out there!" shouted Ross.  
"Damn it!" Taichi cursed. More swords struck WarGreymon and now both of his knees were on the ground. WarGreymon's breath was now sounding labored as something was clearly wrong with him. He couldn't keep fighting like this!  
"Koushiro-han! Let me join him!" "Me too, Ross! He needs help!" Tentomon and Guilmon begged us to let them fight.  
"No!" Taichi stopped them.  
"Taichi-san!" I turned to him.  
 _"_ _Yamato… Hurry up and get here!"_ Taichi thought as WarGreymon struggled to get back on his feet while Piemon slowly walked towards him.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

I kept looking across the ground for any sign of the others. When we began flying over a river, I saw a strange white thing in the water.  
"What's that?" I pointed out for Sora.  
"Let's go down and take a look." As we got closer, I soon recognized it. It was the same swan boat Yamato used when we were separated after the fight with Etemon!  
"It's Onii-chan's boat! He must be close!" I yelled as we landed and Birdramon devolved back into Piyomon.  
"They must be nearby! Let's find them!" Patamon insisted. After a couple of minutes, however, we could find no trace of Yamato anywhere.  
"Onii-chan's nowhere to be found." I said.  
 _"_ _Why? At this rate, Taichi and the others will- I have to find them! I promised I promised I'd find everyone and bring them back!"_ Sora thought to herself. I turned to look at her and saw something building at her feet!  
"Sora-san! There's some black stuff crawling up your legs!"  
"Eh?" She said as she turned to me before a hole opened up and she fell in with Piyomon flying after her.  
"Sora!"  
"Sora-san!" I cried out as she vanished.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Sora-san!" Wait, I recognize that voice! Jou and myself begun to run up the hill until we saw the one person in the Digimon world that I really wanted to see first.  
"Takeru!" He turned towards my direction when he heard my voice.  
"Onii-chan!"  
"Takeru!" I ran up to him and hugged him.  
"Where were you?" He asked as I squeezed him tightly. "I was so worried!"  
"I'm sorry!" I picked him up. "I won't just up and leave you anymore. I promise."  
"Huh? Onii-chan, you look sort of different now." He looked at me odd. I guess he must mean I'm not burying my emotions under a smirk, but rather being more forward with my feelings.  
"Never mind that, Takeru. What are you doing here anyway?" Takeru's eyes widened as I asked that and he quickly pointed to a hole that was next to him.  
"Sora-san was pulled down that hole!"  
"Sora-kun is down there?" Jou ran up to it.

The closer I look at this hole… the more familiar it looks. Gabumon seemed to have recognized it as well.  
"Yamato, this is…" Gabumon spoke up.  
"Yeah. This is the same cave that held us captive before."  
"What is it?" questioned Takeru.  
"Anyway, we have to save her!" Jou informed. We all begun to start climbing down and hoped that Sora was okay, but if I know this place… then things are not going well in her heart and mind. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this place…"  
"It's scary." Takeru admitted.  
"It's okay. Don't be scared, Takeru. Your fear will only agitate the darkness instead." I advised both of them.  
"O-Okay…" "I got it." Jou still seemed nervous but Takeru sounded like he got control of his fear. That's good. He really has grown up, and he didn't truly need me to do it.

Jou took a step towards the bottom of the cave and some rocks came apart that sent him falling on his butt.  
"Are you okay?" I asked.  
"Yeah. It's a good thing the bottom wasn't very far. I thought I'd keep falling." I helped him up and Takeru down before looking further into the cave.  
"This is the place."  
"Where's Sora-kun?"  
"It's so dark, I can't see." Takeru said.  
"I hear voices over there." Patamon told us. We turned around to the other direction of the cave.  
"Let's check it out!" Jou walked ahead.

"Sora!" We could hear Piyomon's voice up ahead. "Sora, what's wrong? Sora, listen to me!"  
"That's Piyomon's voice!" Gomamon announced.  
"Sora-kun must be with her!" guessed Jou. We ran ahead and turned the corner to find Sora on the ground with Piyomon next to her. Sora was completely surrounded by a dark aura which if I asked Gabumon, he'd probably say the same thing was happening to me.  
"Sora? Sora!" Piyomon tried to get through to her.  
"Sora-san!" Takeru shouted as we all ran up to them.  
"You guys!"  
"Sora, what's wrong? Get up!" I begged her. I tried to pick her up but she was like stone. "She won't budge!"  
"Let me help!" Jou tried as well but we still couldn't do anything. "What is this?" Jou questioned as we practically strained ourselves trying to get her up. "Is gravity playing tricks or something?"  
"Sora-san is saying something." Takeru told us.

"I have to find Mimi-chan… and Jou-senpai and Yamato-kun… I have to save Taichi… If I don't, our world is finished…"  
"She hasn't been answering me." Piyomon informed. "All she does is mumble the same thing over and over!"  
"Yamato and I are right here. Look up!" Jou shook her. She looked up to reveal her eyes were all faded like most of her emotion had been sucked out of her or something like that.  
"Senpai… Thank goodness…" She looked over to me. "Yamato-kun is here, too…"  
"Don't worry." I assured her. "Everything's all right now."  
"No, it's not. This isn't good enough. I have to get a better grip on myself… I have to save Taichi… or this world will…"  
"Sora-kun, you're putting too much responsibility on yourself!" Jou tried to tell her.  
"Sora! All of you negative thoughts are turning into negative energy! The darkness within your heart is what's creating this cave!"  
"R-Really?" Jou was surprised by this revelation. "So that's why you told Takeru-kun not to be scared."

"Listen, Sora! This dark cave is reflecting the dark feelings that are in your heart! Sora! You've got to throw those feelings away! Throw them out!" I shouted.  
"Those feelings…? What are you talking about?" She questioned.  
"We're not fighting because we're obligated to. We're doing it because we _want_ to! If you don't want to do it, you don't have to. But I think it's because we've _wanted_ to do this that we've come this far!"  
"If I don't want to do it, I don't have to." I think I'm getting through to her!  
"That's right! If you don't want to do it, then _don't_!"  
"That's… I can't! We have to do this because we were chosen!"  
"Sora-kun!" Jou now joined in. "It's true that we may be helpless against what's in store for us… but it must be because we can _do something about it_ that we're here!"

"We can do something about it…" Come on, Jou, we've got to keep going!  
"Doesn't thinking that way give you courage?"  
"We can do something about it… That's why we're here…!" We grabbed her hands and she blinked. Her eyes returned to normal upon blinking. "We can do it! Yeah! You're right!" We helped her up.  
"You have us, remember?" I reminded her.  
"Sora-san!" Takeru cheered. Sora nodded at our words.  
"Sora!" Piyomon ran up to her and hugged her.  
"Piyomon!"  
"Thank goodness! You're back to your usual self!" Just like before with me, the whole cave around us vanished and we ended up in a jungle.  
"It disappeared!" shouted Jou.  
"The darkness inside Sora's heart has disappeared with it." I told them.  
"That was inside my heart…" Sora looked startled about that.

"Hey, Taichi-san is waiting for us!" Takeru recalled why they went looking for us.  
"Yeah." Jou nodded.  
"Let's go… to where Taichi is!" I declared.  
"Yeah!" Sora smiled. "By the way, where's Mimi-chan?"  
"We split us when I went to look for Yamato." Jou said. "I'm sure she's probably on her way to rejoin Taichi's group."  
"Then let's hurry and get to them!" I shouted as we all headed towards the top of Spiral Mountain where Sora said Taichi was.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Toy Wonderness!" I don't know what that attack was but it was aimed towards my direction. Multiple rocks flew towards me but WarGreymon got in the way and took the hit. However, the force of the impact also blew me back onto the ground.  
"Onii-chan!" "Taichi!" "Taichi-san!" Hikari, Ross and Koushiro called out while Ross and Koushiro ran towards me.  
"Koushiro! Ross! Stay back, you two! You need to take care of Hikari!" I struggled to get up. Another of that Toy Wonderness attack sent me flying back once more while WarGreymon just took more abuse.  
"Taichi-san! I know it's important to protect Hikari-kun, but if this keeps up, _you_ will…!" Koushiro tried to talk some sense into me.  
"For God's sake, Taichi! You're gonna get yourself killed if you don't at least let us help!" Ross bluntly shouted.  
"Quite a stubborn fellow, isn't he." observed Tentomon.

"It's okay! I'll be stubborn or whatever!" I got back on my feet. "Just… let me take care of this! I'll do something about it!" I tried to tell them.  
"No… No, that doesn't make any sense!" Koushiro said.  
"It doesn't matter!"  
"Do you seriously intend to handle all of this entirely by yourself, Taichi-san?"  
"Yeah! What's wrong with that?"  
"What's wrong with it?! Taichi, this plan of yours isn't working! Yamato isn't here and WarGreymon's about to keel over!" Ross told me.  
"He's right! So tell me why you won't let me fight, too?!" Koushiro begged for an answer.  
"Ending Snipe!" Piemon sent out a wave of electrical energy that stuck WarGreymon head on to all of our horror.  
"WarGreymon!" Hikari yelled out.

WarGreymon fell over on his back, his armor destroyed in multiple locations and clearly leaking some sort of fluids from his tubes; and he wasn't moving.  
"War…! G-Greymon…" I tried to call out and reach him but those attacks Piemon sent out had done more damage to me than I thought and I fell forward as my body gave out and closed my eyes.  
"Taichi-san!" "Taichi!" "Onii-chan!" The others screamed.  
"Now, who's next?" Piemon asked. I did it all again… I was being stupid once again. I thought I was being smart and a good leader by holding Agumon back against LadyDevimon and letting him fight Piemon while I asked Sora and Takeru to find Yamato in order to finally defeat the final Dark Master. But instead, I just let WarGreymon get destroyed by attack after attack and now… now, I've cost us everything…

"Taichi!" I heard a voice yell out that wasn't the others. Wait… that voice couldn't be… I slowly opened my eyes and looked to the distance where I saw something moving towards me. Is that…  
"Yamato…" I muttered. The closer the object got, the more recognizable it was. It looked to be Yamato riding Garurumon towards me with Birdramon in the air. She did it… she found him and brought him back… way to go, Sora.  
"Taichi!" "Taichi!" The two of them cried out.  
"They make quite a late entrance." Piemon said, proving that I wasn't just imagining what I was seeing. "But no matter. The results will be the same either way. Yamato hopped off the wolf and ran to me. He turned me over onto my back and lifted my head up.  
"You're finally here. I waited all this time for you to get here." I told him.  
"Taichi…"  
"I knew you'd come. I believed you would." Yamato had tears in his eyes when I said that.  
"Thank you for believing in me. But I'm sorry I was so late." He tried to apologize. "Taichi, you're my true friend!" He declared. "I won't let your friendship be in vain!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

As he said those words, his Crest shined brightly and I looked over to see Garurumon next to WarGreymon who nudged his head before he was engulfed in a light. The moment the light died down, WarGreymon was back on his feet looking good as new.  
"What?" Piemon was surprised at the recent turn of events.  
"Yamato's Crest of Friendship gave me the power to restore WarGreymon back to life." Garurumon explained.  
"Thank you, Garurumon. Now I can fight again!" WarGreymon thanked as Garurumon devolved back into Gabumon.  
"Hurry, everyone! Over here!" Koushiro waved the others off the field and back towards the small ledge we were standing on. Jou and Yamato were carrying Taichi back to us.  
"Taichi, are you okay?" Jou asked.  
"I'm fine." He said. Boy, he sure can take a beating, because he looks fine now, if scuffed up a bit.

"Jou-san! Where's Mimi-kun?" I questioned that we were still missing one more Chosen Child.  
"I split up with her when I went to look for Yamato. She should be back on her way with reinforcements."  
"Reinforcements?" I inquired as I pulled him up.  
"Yeah, a bunch of our old friends from File Island are joining the fight, including Ogremon."  
"Ogremon?" Koushiro said in surprise and was shocked to hear that as well as myself.  
"It's fine, I'll explain to you later."  
"You better." I told him.

We all turned out attention back towards Piemon as the clown just stood on a stone ledge just in front of his base.  
"I'd planned on giving all of you an instant death… but if you enjoy suffering that much, I'll relish every minute tormenting you slowly."  
"You talk too much for a clown!" Yamato spat.  
"Trump Sword!" He pulled his blades out and threw them towards WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.  
"Gabumon, warp-evolve! METALGARURUMON!"  
"MetalGarurumon!" Hikari cheered as the two Digimon threw out their most powerful attacks together and they combined to fly right towards the Dark Master, destroying his swords in the process.  
"All right! They took down Piemon's attack!" Jou shouted. The Dark Master jumped over the attack before it could kill him.  
"It looks like I can finally enjoy a more stimulating battle." He said as the three Ultimates stared down each other.

We've got him now! Don't we…?

* * *

Well, that doesn't sound like things are about to switch fast, doesn't it?

Anyways, nothing more to say about this one. So if you'll excuse me, Kaiserreich just updated and I need to preserve the Union from Jack Reed and Huey Long.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	54. The Holy Swordsman! HolyAngemon!

Chapter 53, everyone!

Tonight, I've really got nothing much to say so shoutout to **MadDogLucario96**.

Let's get on with the story, things are about to take a switch.

* * *

 **Chapter 53: The Holy Swordsman! HolyAngemon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+11. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

Our Digimon continued their stare-off against Piemon as neither side was making a move. After a minute of inaction, Yamato decided to break the lull in the fighting.  
"Get him, MetalGarurumon!"  
"WarGreymon! All of this will be over once we beat Piemon!" Taichi said what was at stake. Hard to believe those words… just one more foe and we'll save both worlds.  
"But _can_ you beat me?" Piemon taunted, though he was right, even two Ultimates on one still doesn't mean he'll be a pushover now. The jester laughed and a ring of fire formed in his hands. It flew out while MetalGarurumon charged forward.  
"We will!" He answered to Piemon's taunt. The ring flew past MetalGarurumon like a dog through a hoop except this hoop quickly shrank and squeezed around his waist. The wolf cried out in pain as he fell out of the sky on to the rocky ground below.  
"MetalGarurumon!" WarGreymon ran up to his fellow Ultimate.  
"This one is for you." Piemon informed. The ground opened up and WarGreymon found himself balancing on a ball like he was Russian circus bear. He lost his balance and fell on MetalGarurumon all the while that clown was just laughing hysterically.

"God, I wish he'd just shut up." I growled.  
"He's toying with us." observed Koushiro. "Taichi-san!" Koushiro was waiting for the word to provide help.  
"Put a hold on backup until I say the word."  
"Yeah." Yamato agreed with Taichi. "Let's gauge the situation first."  
"I think it's time to put an end to this. Trump Sword!" Piemon pulled out his swords and threw them but they suddenly vanished in thin air before our Digimon. They quickly reappeared elsewhere before vanishing again.  
"Careful!" Taichi advised. "We don't know where they might turn up next!"  
"My sensors have caught them!" alerted MetalGarurumon. "WarGreymon, 45 degrees to your left!"  
"Okay!" He ran forward and blocked one with his arm guard.  
"The next one's to your right!" More blocks. "I'll take care of the rest!" The wolf fire four lasers from his nose that destroyed the remaining swords and Piemon was not happy about that. "Your attacks won't work on us anymore!"

"Gaia Force!" WarGreymon threw his attack and Piemon took the blast head on, blasting him back to the wall of his base.  
"All right, we've gotten ahead of him! No need to wait anymore, Koushiro! Everyone evolve and attack as one!" Taichi ordered.  
"All right, everyone! Use super evolution!" Koushiro said.  
"Okay!" "Count me in!" "About time!" Tentomon, Gomamon and Guilmon hopped over the rock cover that we were behind.  
"Wait!" Andromon got in their way. Piemon suddenly pulled out a white handkerchief.  
"What's that? Does that white flag mean he's surrendering?" Jou questioned.  
"Well, we won't take it. As long as he lives, both worlds will still be in danger." I reminded while Piemon was showing both sides of the cloth.  
"Is he making that pose to show us that there are no tricks involved" Sora was also just as confused as the rest of us.  
"What's he gonna do next, pull out a pigeon?" Taichi joked.

If only we knew what was gonna come next. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon charged forward at the jester.  
"Playtime is over!" WarGreymon shouted as they got closer to him.  
"Is that so?" He said as he let the small cloth go. It suddenly grew much bigger and engulfed both Digimon. The whole cloth became covered in a strange purple lightning while the two Digimon struggled underneath before the cloth dropped to the ground and neither Digimon were under it!  
"WarGreymon!" "MetalGarurumon!" Both Taichi and Yamato jumped from cover and ran over to where the Digimon once were. Piemon pulled out another cloth and it landed on Taichi and Yamato. Both boys shouted in pain before they suddenly went silent and vanished as well!  
"Onii-chan!" Hikari cried. I would've said something too but I could only look on in horror.  
"What happened?" Takeru asked.

"Allow me…" Piemon pulled up the cloths to reveal nothing underneath them. "…to show you!"  
"T-They're gone!" Jou exclaimed.  
"What's going on?!" Tentomon panicked.  
"What did you do to Taichi-san and the others?!" demanded Koushiro. The answer we got was truly shocking.  
"Why, they're right here. Look." He lifted up both his hands and opened his palms to reveal four small keychains… and the dolls connected looked exactly like Taichi, Yamato, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon!  
"H-He's turned them into dolls!" Sora shouted in horror.  
"{You bastard!}" I screamed in English.  
"That's right. As a reward for putting up a good fight, I've made them a part of my collection." He laughed. "Now, who's next?"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Somewhere in the Digital World, there resided a cave that was shooting mass walls of fire that were protecting a small hole in the ground. Kentarumon had wandered to this place and now stood by and watched the flames continue to shoot.  
"Kentarumon." A voice from behind him called. "Is this it?" The voice came from a Mechanorimon that walked up next to him.  
"You've arrived, sir." Kentarumon looked at the Digimon before turning his attention back to the fire. "Yes. This is the Wall of Fire that was described in the prophecy inscribed in File Island's ancient ruins." The dome on top of Mechanorimon opened up to reveal that it was being piloted by Gennai. This was the same Mechanorimon that he stole all those years ago. When the Dark Masters took over, Gennai fled his home and wandered the Digital World trying to stay one step ahead of the Dark Masters, all the while trying to help the Chosen Children when they were fighting Vamdemon back in Japan. He had avoided them for so long, they actually thought he was dead.  
"But do you suppose it really did come from the other side of these flames?" The old man questioned.  
"That's what the prophecy said."  
"Oh, I don't believe this."

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

Piemon continued to laugh as he put the keychain dolls of Taichi, Yamato, and their Digimon around his waist. In just a few seconds, the tide had turned back into Piemon's favor as our strongest Digimon were now just toys thanks to that sick clown.  
"Hide in that cave!" Andromon ordered as he pointed to a cave at the base of Piemon's castle. All of us got up and ran towards it while I turned around to see Piemon charging towards Andromon..  
"Andromon!" I called out.  
"I will stop him! Spiral Sword!" Piemon deflected the attack and swung at him with his swords. The two Digimon clashed and Andromon was actually able to hold his own as his armor was strong enough to deflect the sword strikes but there was no way he'd be able to beat him.  
"I'm not running away! I'll help you!" Ross almost ran by me but I quickly grabbed him.  
"No, stop! You can't fight him!"  
"Let me go! I'll kill him! I swear I'll kill him!" It was taking everything that I had to keep him back.  
"Jou-senpai! Help me!" Jou came back and grabbed him as well and we dragged him to the caves, all the while he was kicking and screaming.  
"Come on, Ross-kun! Don't let Andromon's fight come to nothing!" Jou tried to convince him. I didn't feel great leaving him behind as well, but what Ross was planning to do ranged on suicidal.  
"Gatling Missile!" That was the last thing I heard before we were out of ear range of the fight.

We ran our way through the caves until we came across a thick chasm that was pitch black at the bottom. It probably was bottomless, or led us down the entire way of the inside of Spiral Mountain which was hollow so it would lead to our deaths anyway. The chasm itself had a cave on the other side with large curtains near it and multiple trapeze ropes that extended across the chasm.  
"Wh-What is this place?" Tentomon questioned.  
"It's like we've run into a circus ring." I observed.  
"It appears the path continues on up ahead." Koushiro added.  
"But how do we get there?" Jou asked.  
"You'll have to swing yourselves through the air using these!" Tentomon referred to the trapeze ropes before he landed on the rock platform on the other side of the chasm.

"Hikari, hold on tight!" Tailmon motioned Hikari to hold her as she got ready to jump.  
"Okay!" Tailmon jumped up and grabbed onto the first rope before she let go and grabbed the second one. She used the momentum to land on the other side safely. Takeru went up next and jumped on the rope while Tailmon hung from the second one to catch him when he let go. The same result happened with Takeru safely making it while Patamon flew over to him.  
"Sora, you go before me." Ross motioned for me and Piyomon to make the leap. Piyomon held on to me as we jumped to the rope and then being caught by Tailmon.  
"I don't know about this…" Guilmon was expressing some doubts before Ross threw him up to the rope. Guilmon quickly recovered and managed to get across.  
"Okay, time to channel my inner Dick Grayson!" Ross said before he ran ahead and grabbed the rope and swing forward to Tailmon.

"Go, Gomamon!" Jou shouted as he and Koushiro threw the seal Digimon onto the rope similar to how Ross dealt with Guilmon. After he was on the other side, Jou and Koushiro were the only ones left as Koushiro climbed on. However, we were out of time as Piemon walked into the cavern.  
"You won't be going far." The clown said as he dangled his new Andromon doll.  
"Andromon! Go, Koushiro!" Jou pushed him before Piemon threw his twisted handkerchief on him.  
"Jou-san!" Koushiro called out but Piemon was quick to prevent him from escaping and he shared the same fate.  
"How dare you do that to Koushiro-han!" Tentomon flew back towards Piemon in anger but he was also engulfed in the sick trick.  
"Caught one, two, and three! It's useless to run." Piemon taunted us once more.  
"Guilmon, the ropes!" Ross pointed to the trapeze.  
"Right! Fireball!" Looks like Ross's plan was to burn the trapeze to try to slow down Piemon. The ropes were engulfed in flames and snapped and we made our escape further into the caves.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

Jou really should've stuck around for another hour because I just had the most amazing luck. As we walked down the river, we soon came into an area that had been used as a sort of refugee camp for the displaced Gekomon and Otamamon and even Unimon! Suddenly, I found myself commanding a full-fledged army, though I was quick to tell them to not call me Princess. I decided that with all the friends I now had with me, it was time to rejoin Taichi and the others. Hopefully, Jou found Yamato and they're on their way as well.

The only problem about rejoining the others was that we had to scale up the side of Spiral Mountain's peak. Palmon evolved to Lilimon and flew up to attach some ropes at the top with Unimon and now all of us were scaling up the side, though Lilimon was having to give me a boost.  
"You're so heavy… I can't push you up…" She told me.  
"No way! I can't be that fat!" I climbed another meter and looked over to see the others almost at the top. How Meramon doesn't burn his rope or Ogremon climb with one arm, I'll never know.  
"Mimi! It looks like the fight has already started, ribbit!" A Gekomon at the top shouted.  
"There are so many of us that need to get up there… Don't we have anyone here who can fly?!" I shouted as Unimon flew over us.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

The caves actually just led us deeper into the castle so at this moment were now just hiding under the floor boards in a very large and empty chamber. I still can't believe how everything changed so fast. We all got even quieter as we soon heard footsteps on the floor boards above us.  
"Oh, what's this? You can't stop crying even after you've become a doll? You must be lonely without the rest of your friends. Just wait. You'll all be together again soon." Piemon was probably talking to the doll versions of our friends. He walked even closer to where we were. "I've told you, it's useless to run. Why don't you give in to your fate and come out quietly?" We kept quiet and held our breath. "That's odd, maybe they aren't in here." He said as the footsteps moved away before they stopped.  
"It sounds like he went into the next room." Sora whispered. Suddenly, a sword went right though the boards and nearly stabbed us!  
"Look, I've found you!" We all got up and ran away from more of the swords that he was stabbing into the ground. "Come on out!"  
"We're done for!" I admitted as I held onto Ross.  
"No we're not!" Sora tried to assure me.  
"But you may be soon enough!" taunted the Dark Master.

"Holy Arrow!" Piemon sounded like he had been hit by Angewomon's attack and dropped his sword.  
"Run, Hikari!" "Hurry, Sora!" "Get out of here, Ross!" Angewomon, Garudamon and MegaloGrowmon told us.  
"Angewomon!" "Garudamon!" "MegaloGrowmon!" The three of us cried out for our Digimon.  
"Shadow Wing!" "Atomic Blaster!" Our Digimon were trying to give us time to escape and we found another crawl space that we could use to get out of the room. Good thing too, as Garudamon's talon crashed through the floor behind us. We heard behind us the sounds all three Digimon roaring in pain before they all quickly went silent. Now it was just Patamon who could fight Piemon now…

"Takeru-kun!" Sora got his attention.  
"Wh-What?"  
"Take Hikari-chan and get out of here!"  
"But what about you? And Ross-san?"  
"We'll stay behind. Try to buy you two time to escape." Ross admitted. Both our eyes widened upon hearing that plan.  
"But Ross-chan…!" I tried to argue but Sora interrupted me.  
"Listen carefully. There's no doubt that Garudamon, MegaloGrowmon and Angewomon have been turned into dolls. You're the only one here who can protect Hikari-chan." She said. "Understand?"  
"But Sora-san, Ross-san, you're…!"

"Takeru! Now's not the time to argue or worry about us." Ross put his hands on Takeru's shoulders. "You need to protect Hikari and flee this place, now can you do that?" Takeru said nothing before he finally nodded.  
"Yeah."  
"Do whatever it takes to get away from here." Sora told him.  
"Okay. I'll protect Hikari-chan at all costs!" Takeru promised.  
"Good kid! Now, move! Both of you!" Ross shouted.  
"Let's go, Hikari-chan!" Takeru motioned me to follow him.  
"Okay." Patamon, Gomamon and myself followed him as we ran for what we hoped for an exit.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"Ross, Sora, I'll fight with you!" Gomamon turned around to us.  
"Don't be stupid!" I scolded him. "You can't even evolve, what makes you think you can do anything useful?"  
"Sora!"  
"If you get turned into a doll, you won't be able to face Jou-senpai later, after he's risked his life to protect yours! Now go!"  
"Look, Gomamon, what Sora is trying to say is you'll be more useful with Takeru-kun and Hikari then with us." Ross explained but Gomamon was still hesitating. Ross dug into his pocket and pulled out a Swiss Army Knife.  
"Is that Mimi-chan's?" I asked.  
"No, mine. I remembered to bring it this time." He pulled out the knife part of it.  
"You're not actually planning on using that on Piemon, are you?"  
"Hey, I ain't going down without a fight. If this is my end, then I'll damn well go down swinging." He pointed at me.

As soon as he said that, the floor behind us exploded to reveal Piemon who was laughing at us.  
"Didn't use your time wisely to run, I see. It's only a matter of time before you become dolls yourselves." He held up doll versions Angewomon, MegaloGrowmon and Garudamon.  
"That won't happen!" Gomamon jumped forward and snagged the Yamato doll off Piemon's belt. "Sora, catch!" He threw the doll to me as he was stomped on by Piemon.  
"Semper Fi!" Ross shouted as he charged forward with the knife which actually distracted Piemon who simply sidestepped out of the way before he threw a sheet on him as well. The distraction lasted long enough for me to do what I needed to do.  
"Takeru-kun!" I gathered all of my strength and threw Yamato's doll underhanded towards Takeru in the hopes he caught it.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

Sora called out my name and threw something to me before she was turned into a doll just like Ross. I managed to catch what she threw and saw that it was the doll of my brother. Hikari and I ran towards the large metal door at the end of the hall and got it open.  
"Oh? Where do you think you're going?" Piemon said with Gomamon still under his boot as we closed the door behind us. We looked out to see that we were on a balcony, high above the rocky ground below.  
"Oh no!" Patamon cried.  
"It's a dead end!" I told Hikari.  
"What do we do?" She asked as we all looked down towards the ground below. Behind us, we could hear Piemon's wicked laugh on the other side of the door. "Wh-What shout we do?" Hikari asked again.  
"We've got no other choice but to climb down."  
"It's too high! I-I can't, I'll slip and fall!" Hikari was clearly terrified right now. I was too but I had to be brave and keep her safe. Going down wasn't an option as she said. I looked up to the dome.  
"But we can't exactly climb up…" I observed.

"Hey, Takeru, what's this?" Patamon noticed a small wicker basket that stood alone on the balcony.  
"I don't know, what?" I walked over to it and opened it up to reveal rope! "It's a rope! We can use this to climb down the mountain!" However, the rope started to move on its own and shot straight up towards the sky!  
"What is this? How far is it going?" Hikari wondered.  
"It keeps going up." I walked up to it to check on it. I tugged on it but it looked fine somehow. "The rope is okay. It's keeping steady. Climb up, Hikari-chan."  
"But…"  
"Don't be afraid, climb up! I'll be right behind you."  
"O-Okay." Hikari grabbed on and started to climb upward. I grabbed on next and followed close behind.

We were pretty high up when the door exploded down on the balcony. Hikari screamed as the rope suddenly became wobbly.  
"I'll stop Piemon!" Patamon flew back down to try to fight Piemon. "Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!" Angemon jumped down and used his rod to swing at Piemon who blocked it with both of his swords. Piemon launched a counter-attack and did three swings that Angemon blocked the first two before getting grazed by the third strike. Piemon tried to stab him by throwing one of his swords but Angemon dodged it and it left him open to getting struck in the face with the rod. Piemon jumped back but Angemon swung again and hit him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.  
"Get him, Angemon!" I cheered as we kept climbing.  
"Heaven's Knuckle!" Angemon launched his attack but Piemon threw out his hands and the attack receded to strike Angemon!  
"Angemon!" called out Hikari. Angemon got back to the ground but Piemon threw a yellow ball of energy that stuck him in the chest sending him falling over the side of the balcony to the ground below, and for good measure, Piemon also threw multiple swords that sliced him.  
"Angemon!" I cried as Angemon crashed to the ground. "Angemon!" I yelled again with tears in my eyes.

"Takeru-kun!" Hikari got my attention.  
"Hikari-chan!" I looked up at her while trying to clear the tears from my eyes. I can't let Hikari-chan see me like this, or else she'll get even more scared! "Angemon will be okay!" I tried to assure her. "So keep climbing!"  
"Okay!" She nodded. She didn't climb much more as a sword nearly took her hand off and cut the rope!  
"Hikari!" The rope was still staying upward but we couldn't go much higher.  
"I thought I told you that there's nowhere left to run." Piemon informed.  
"Takeru…" I heard Angemon mutter from below. I tried to climb a few more centimeters but I felt my foot get grabbed and dragged down.  
"See, I've caught you."  
"Takeru-kun!" Hikari grabbed my hand.  
"Let go of my hand! He'll get you, too, Hikari-chan!"  
"No, I'll never let go!" I greatly appreciated the fact that she was willing to do that for me. She was really a nice girl.  
"Then fall together!" Piemon shouted as he cut the rope below us, sending us falling to our demise!

"Takeru! Hikari!" Angemon yelled as Piemon laughed at our fate. Hikari held unto my hand tight as we kept falling before she lost her grip. We're not going to make it. I decided to at least look at my brother one last time before the end and I took the doll off my backpack and held it in my hands. Onii-chan…  
 _"_ _Takeru. Don't give up."_ Wait, did I just hear his voice?  
"Onii-chan?"  
 _"_ _As my younger brother, I know you'll never give up no matter what happens. You've got to hang in there and summon all of your strength."_ I don't know if he really was communicating to me or if that was my own mind, but those words were right.  
"I won't give up. I'll _never_ give up! If we die, this world… and our world will both be destroyed! That's why we can't give up! Angemon!" I called out as my Crest glowed.  
"T-Takeru!" My Digivice turned yellow while the buttons glowed green and it shot a beam of energy out that hit my Crest before reflecting towards Angemon. He was finally evolving into his Perfect-Level. "Angemon, super-evolve! HOLYANGEMON!"

HolyAngemon was a pure being with eight shining wings, a large purple arm guard, and gold gauntlet around his other arm that shot out a purple sword of pure energy and a large purple helmet. He quickly flew up and caught Hikari before he caught me as well.  
"Angemon super-evolve!" I praised. He flew us toward the ground and put us down safely before he turned his attention back towards Piemon.  
"What?" Piemon was surprised by this sudden turn of events and threw out of his handkerchiefs to try and turn him into a doll, but the sword activated on HolyAngemon's gauntlet and he sliced it in two!  
"Receive my sword of judgment!" He cut Piemon in the chest and knocked away all the keychains of our friends, which he hurriedly caught. Piemon fell backwards in pain before he tripped over the side of the balcony and fell to the ground below. HolyAngemon flew back towards us and place all of the dolls on the ground. I put Yamato's along with them. "Holy Disinfection!" HolyAngemon's wings glowed like a rainbow and light shown from them and covered the dolls before they glowed and soon began to grow in height and be restored.

"You guys… We're all back to normal!" Taichi cried.  
"Onii-chan!" Hikari and I said as we ran to our brothers. Hikari grabbed Taichi's hand and dragged him to Ross where they all gathered in a group hug.  
"Takeru!" Yamato hugged me. "Thank you! You did great!"  
"You helped by encouraging me!"  
"Huh?" He gave me a confused look. I guess those words of wisdom were of my own imagination. Didn't know I had it in me.  
"Whoa, when did you evolve? You look really cool!" Tentomon was taken aback by HolyAngemon.  
"Do you honestly think so?" Piemon's voice echoed as we all turned to see him walking towards our area. "I intended to be merciful and keep you as dolls instead of killing you, but you must _really_ want to die! Very well! I'll give you what you wish for!" He lifted his hands and out of the ground arose a whole army of small black imp-like creatures!  
"They're crawling all over the place! What are these guys?!" Tentomon questioned.  
"Evilmon. Evil Digimon who love to fight. Their special attack is Nightmare Shock." Koushiro informed.

"We're surrounded!" Jou shouted.  
"There is no opening where we can escape." Koushiro looked around.  
"But we won't lose!" I declared.  
"Yeah, we'll show them!" Yamato said.  
"That's right! With the Chosen Children and their Digimon working together, these freaks are nothing!" Taichi told us.  
"Wait! Don't forget about me!" A female voice cried out from the distance. We turned to see Mimi riding a pegasus Digimon towards our direction, and Jou wasn't kidding when he said she was gathering friends as she brought with her a whole army!  
"Mimi-chan!" Sora yelled.  
"Welcome to the party, Mimi!" Ross called out in a strange accent.  
"Thank goodness! We made it just in time!" Lilimon sighed in relief as they approached. A few Evilmon that were near Ogremon got smacked by his bone club as the other Digimon got closer to the Evilmon horde.  
"The enemy's in swarms, but we can take 'em on!" He cried. "I'm itching for a fight!"  
"All right, guys! This is our last battle! Attack!" Taichi ordered.

All the Digimon charged forward and a savage fight begun. MetalGarurumon jumped forward and crushed a few Evilmon, Elecmon and the pegasus blasted a few others while Mimi and Sora ran up to each other and gave two high-fives.  
"All right!" They cheered.  
"Haouken." Ogremon's attack cut down a few more imps while several of them chased those frogs and tadpoles… only to be chased by Yukidarumon, Meramon, Andromon and an armored dinosaur.  
"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAUKUMON! Ikkakumon, super-evolve! Zudomon!" "Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON! Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!" The two remaining Digimon evolved to their highest levels.  
"Hammer Spark!" Zudomon's attack vaporized multiple Evilmon that were stuck by the attack.  
"Trump Sword!" Piemon threw out his swords to the two Digimon.  
"Horn Buster!" AtlurKabuterimon's attack destroyed the swords before they could harm anyone.  
"Flower Cannon!" Piemon held up his hand to quickly deflect the attack before he went back to his old doll making trick.  
"Holy Arrow!" The sheet that was reserved for Lilimon was cut down by Angewomon's arrow.

"Shadow Wing!" The attack hit the ground near Piemon that blasted him into the air and right towards MegaloGrowmon.  
"Double Edge!" The blades on his arms glowed and slashed Piemon in the sides as he fell to the ground. Piemon slowly got back up but his hips had wide gashes and he was clutching them as hard as he could.  
"Heaven's Gate!" HolyAngemon activated his sword and made a circular motion that created a large golden door.  
"What's that?" Taichi asked.  
"It's opening!" Hikari pointed.  
"All evil beings are sucked into the dimension beyond the gate and buried there." explained HolyAngemon as a large vortex was sucking dozens of Evilmon into the gate.

"What?" Piemon cried out in terror before he turned to see WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon staring him down.  
"Let's end this!" WarGreymon said.  
"Yeah!" MetalGarurumon agreed.  
"Gaia Force!" "Double Tomahawk!" Both attacks struck the ground right in front of Piemon and he was once again sent flying, this time to the gate which he fell into before it closed and disintegrated, killing him and all of his follower that were sucked inside. A rainbow of energy suddenly appeared above us and bathed the entire mountain as the last part of Spiral Mountain probably receded upon the death of the final Dark Master! We did it! We actually did!

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We won. I can't believe I can say that. We defeated the Dark Masters and saved both worlds. Of course, I could've done without being turned into a doll. That was hell. I could see and hear everything but I couldn't do anything. It was like being trapped in your own body. But at least we weren't stuck to that fate.  
"It's over." Taichi sighed.  
"Yeah." Yamato nodded. We all turned to see Mimi's army waving goodbye as they were going back to their homes now that it was all over.  
"Huh? Even Ogremon is here!" Taichi was surprised. Did he not hear what Jou said?  
"Oh, yeah, you don't know what happened." Mimi told him. "The thing is…"  
"Huh?" Koushiro interrupted her as something had happened on his computer. "I have a message from Gennai-san."  
"Maybe he wants to congratulate us." Sora thought.  
"Great time to pick now, after all we've done for the geezer." Taichi rolled his eyes as I put my arm over his shoulder.  
"Yeah, what is it? His thanks for us bailing him out of the fire?"

"That can't be!" Koushiro shouted.  
"What did he say?" Taichi asked.  
"Apparently our real enemy isn't the Dark Masters." All of us gasped in surprised. What does he mean by that? "The existence of our real enemy itself is what caused the distortion in this world, and the Dark Masters only gained their power from those distortions."  
"Then… who's our real enemy?" Taichi demanded. The whole ground soon began to rumble underneath us.  
"What's that?" Lilimon questioned as a large crack opened up near her and Angewomon. A bright red light exploded from Piemon's fortress and the bright sky suddenly darkened once again.

Oh, what now…?

* * *

And that was Chapter 53. Just went the kids think they're home free, things switch on them once more.

Two quick things. One, that 'Welcome to the party, Mimi!' Ross says, he's doing Bruce Willis's famous line from _**Die Hard**_ , Detective Jake Peralta's favorite film of all time.

Secondly, this maybe because I just watched a playthrough of it the other day, but the ending of this reminds me of the penultimate level The Mace from Call of Duty 3 when the Polish Armored Division holds off the Germans long enough for the Canadians to arrive and tighten the noose to the Falaise Gap.  
Pte. Marek 'Beksa' Ulan: That's it. They're running. We did it. We did it!  
*Few minutes later*  
Lt. Jean-Guy Robiechauld: I'm sorry we got here a little late.  
Maj. Stan 'Papa Jack' Jackowicz: I want time to gather my men.  
Jean: I thought I saw your squad up at the manor house.  
Stan: The dead ones. I don't want to see them buried here. I want to take them home.  
Jean: Well, they've certainly earned that, at least. Commander Jackowicz, are you all right?  
Stan: I'll be home soon. And they will surrender soon.  
Jean: The Bosch? No, that's not likely, not while they still have a way out.  
Stan: That being?  
Jean: Chambois.  
*American defences at Chambois*  
Sgt. Mike Dixon: Get a thirty on that position there. Huxley! Find some more sandbags.  
Pfc. Salvadore Guzzo: *Hands Dixon a note* From Major Holden.  
Dixon: The Poles and the Canucks have taken Hill 262. Jerry's falling back. Hard.  
Guzzo: Towards us?  
Dixon: Every last godforsaken one of 'em.  
Guzzo: We're gonna need more ammo.

Anyways, I've rambled long enough. See you guys soon.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	55. The Last Evil Digimon!

Chapter 54! We're almost done... and now I'm sad.

Shoutout to **MadDogLucario96** for his review.

And to **God of the Challenge** , Noice! It's an amazing show with an amazing cast and so many great episodes, like The Box with Sterling K. Brown being like an African-American Hannibal Lecter and even more funny moments such as the cold openings like Holt predicting why Amy was late to work, _'Hot damn!'_ , Jake sliding on the floor, _'THE FULL BULLPEN!'_ , or Jake making a police lineup sing _'I Want It That Way'_ which led to this great line.  
"Chills, literal chills!"  
"Number five. Number five killed my brother!"  
"Oh my god, I forgot about that!"

Anyways, let's see who this true enemy of the Chosen Children is.

* * *

 **Chapter 54: The Last Evil Digimon!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+11. Afternoon.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

This is ridiculous! Just when we think we're home free and we've finally won, the carpet gets yanked out from under us! The whole sky darkened as the peak of Spiral Mountain began to crumble at our feet before it collapsed and sent us all falling into the abyss below. We all were screaming as we fell while our Digimon followed close behind to try and save us.  
"Taichi!" "Yamato!" "Ross!" "Sora!" "Koushiro-han!" "Mimi!" "Jou!" "Takeru!" "Hikari!" They all yelled as we kept falling. After what felt like a whole minute, we suddenly came to a stop before we realized we were floating in midair.  
"We've stopped!" Jou cried as our Digimon followed suit.  
"Taichi! Are you okay?" WarGreymon asked.  
"Yeah."

"Where could we be? "Koushiro questioned as he looked around. The best way to describe this place was like a twisted star field or something, I can't fully tell. We heard a beeping noise and Koushiro realized it was coming from his laptop. He pulled it out and opened the screen to reveal Gennai.  
"This darkness is probably endless." That was the first thing the old geezer said to us.  
"Gennai-san!"  
"Hey, what's the deal?" Taichi wanted answers from him.  
"We defeated the Dark Masters!" Yamato shouted.  
"But you haven't beaten the source that has brought forth all of the evil in the first place."  
"Huh?" We all said.  
"This source of evil came from the Wall of Fire."  
"The Wall of Fire?" Jou inquired. Is talking about a computer's firewall?

"Inscriptions were found on the walls of the Ancient Dino Ruins, and this is what they say. 'Long ago, something appeared from the other side of the Wall of Fire, which is located deep within the Digital World. Solely by existing, this creature has warped the fabric of space-time, and it had almost brought this world to total destruction. The Digimon could not beat it with their own power, and so they called on Chosen Children from the real world to help them eliminate it.'" Our eyes widened upon hearing that last sentence.  
"Then that means…" Taichi stuttered.  
"There were Chosen Children before us!" Jou was dumbfounded like the rest of us. I can't believe there were Chosen Children before us. Where were they when we needed them to show us the ropes?  
"Then, the reason why we were brought here is because something came out of that Wall of Fire again, right? And that's our real enemy!" Sora pieced it together.

"There was also a prophecy written among the inscriptions in the Ancient Dino Ruins. It said that, before long, a large darkness will enter this world from the Wall of Fire once again."  
"A large darkness…" Yamato looked around.  
"You mean this darkness?" Jou pointed above his head.  
"This can only mean that prophecy has come true then." I said as I looked behind me to continue seeing the vast nothingness.  
"Are you saying this darkness is the enemy's real form?" Taichi asked Gennai. I hope not, how do you kill darkness that's around you?  
"You could say that." Thanks, Gennai. I hate it when I'm right. "But I'm sure it also has a physical body." Oh, that's much better. At least we can fight that. "Fight with caution, children!" Gennai gave us some parting words before his image started to static out.  
"Wait! Don't go!" Taichi tried to keep him in touch but it was no use. Koushiro's screen went blank. "How do we fight when we don't even know _what_ we're fighting?"

"What did he mean anyway?" Jou was still confused about what was said. "Is this creature different from the Digimon that we've fought before?"  
"Its existence itself is likely to be fundamentally different from what we are used to." Koushiro theorized as he closed his laptop.  
"We can still win! Children just like us defeated the same creature a long time ago!" determined Yamato.  
"You're right. There must be a way." Sora agreed. Suddenly, the sound of something groaning filled our ears.  
"Whose voice is that?" Hikari nervously asked.  
"It's creepy." Mimi feared.  
"It sounds like it's coming from everywhere." Angewomon informed.  
"It's… It's saying something!" Taichi yelled.

"Yes." The voice said, and it was chilling. "Listen to the lingering remnants of our regrets." That voice sounded like thousands of voices speaking all at once, like it was the voice of the Legion from the Gospels of Mark.  
"Regents?" Sora questioned.  
"Who is that?" Jou asked.  
"Show yourself!" I ordered. Out of the darkness in front of us revealed a titanic 12-sided polyhedron.  
"This is the Digimon that appeared from the Wall of Fire?" Koushiro was in disbelief. The thing started to open up and reveal a bunch of metal claws that hung on double helix chains. And at the top of the object was quite an ominous figure. It wore a black cape, a gray helmet that covered a scar on the left side of its yellow eyes, dirty white hair and long arms with blood red claws. It also had a blue and red tube connected to its stomach.  
"What the hell is that thing?" Yamato was taken aback by its horrific appearance.  
"My Digimon Analyzer says that thing is called Apoclymon, though it's not even sure if it is a Digimon." Koushiro said.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Back on Earth, the families of the Chosen Children had gathered to watch the skies and see if their children or siblings were defeating the darkness that was gathering. Things had looked good before as the sky started to clear with each Dark Master's death. However, now they could see a hole in that revealed the dark creature.  
"What… is that?" Yuuko questioned as she tightened her grip on Susumu's shoulder. A second later, the image in the hole revealed the children and their Digimon to their loved one's shock.  
"Sora!" shouted Toshiko.  
"Mimi-chan!" Keisuke and Satoe cried for their daughter.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

That thing… that Apoclymon, just laughed at us once more upon its reveal. Seriously, what depths of Hell did that thing crawl out of?  
"Do you consider me ugly?" It asked. None of us said anything, possibly out of being smart not to antagonize it immediately. "It's true, isn't it? That is what you are thinking, isn't it? We are, after all, the ones who were thwarted through the evolution process."  
"The evolution process?" asked Koushiro.  
"Digimon have continued to evolve again and again throughout the years. Did you know that there were some among them who disappeared?"  
"It is inevitable for some species to disappear during the evolution process. If they aren't able to adapt to their environment-"  
"Silence!" It screamed to our fears.  
"'Inevitable?' You think that single word can put an end to this entire matter?!"  
"What are you getting at?" Yamato inquired.  
"Are you saying that we have no right to live?"  
"No, I'd never-" Koushiro tried to defend but the monsters was already pretty dead set on his argument.

"Yes. We are the Digimon who have disappeared through the evolution process… The resultant build-up of thoughts that have cursed our sad and hateful fates!"  
"You were created from the dark hearts of the Digimon who disappeared?" Sora said but got no answer.  
"Dear Chosen Children and your dear Digimon. We have been looking forward to meeting all of you."  
"What?" "What do you mean?" WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were confused by that line.  
"Listen. While we lay buried within a deep darkness of utter coldness and sorrow, you were on the other side, enjoying yourselves and laughing happily in the warm light. WHY?" A whole electric wave shot out and struck us. It was painful and blew us back a few meters.  
"Is everyone okay?" Taichi wanted a head count.  
"Yeah, I'll manage." "Little shaken up." "Yes." "We're okay, Taichi."

"What have we done to deserve this?!" Apoclymon cried. It suddenly dug it claws deep into the flesh of its shoulder before tearing through it revealing sickly green flesh and blood.  
"Good God…" I muttered.  
"Why must we weep tears of grief while you enjoy cheerful laughter?!"  
"No, I don't want to see this!" Mimi covered her eyes.  
"We, too, have tears that flow from our eyes and feelings that flow from our hearts. Just who decided that we were to be deprived of this world and consigned to oblivion?! We wanted to live! We wanted to live and speak of friendship, justice, and love! We wanted to use this body to be helpful to this world!" It's got a funny idea of being helpful, considering it's the reason both worlds are collapsing. "Are you saying that this world has no need for us? That we are meaningless?!" The flesh it tore at its shoulders quickly healed.  
"It has self-regenerative abilities!" Koushiro alerted.  
"Then we shall rule this world! We shall make this place belong to us. All who get in our way will die!" It laughed. "May the light be forever cursed where it shines!"

One of the metal claws that was part of the large 12-sided object closed before it became an all-black version of an all too familiar sea serpent.  
"Ultimate Stream!" The attack flew right towards Hikari!  
"Hikari!" Taichi and I yelled out as Angewomon quickly got in front of her and took the shot right into her back.  
"Angewomon!"  
"Kind and gentle children. That was a sign of our friendship." The abomination taunted. "The next is… love!" Another claw closed and turned into the silhouette of Vamdemon. "Bloody Stream!" The strike was targeting Mimi!  
"Mimi!" Lilimon cried as she pushed Mimi out of the way and took the blow.  
"Lilimon!"  
"Justice!" Its claw turned into Mugendramon. "Mugen Cannon!" The shots headed towards Sora this time.  
"Sora!" Garudamon shielded her in her hands while being hit by the powerful attack.

"Could it be- It can use all of the attacks of the Digimon we've met!" Koushiro theorized.  
"Looks that way, yeah!" I told him.  
"But then that means we have to face the combined powers of every Digimon we've ever fought!" Jou worried.  
"Does that mean we can't win?!" Sora feared.  
"Guys! Don't let that thing get to you! Get back into position!" rallied Taichi.  
"We just have to work together!" Takeru decided. Hikari and Angewomon nodded at him.  
"That's right! We can't pull back anymore!" Yamato reminded.  
"You haven't seen yet just how terrible we can really be. Death Evolution!" The whole swarm of claws came towards our direction and engulfed all of our Digimon. "We'll make you understand what we felt as we disappeared through the evolution process." The claws opened up to reveal all of our Digimon reverted back to the normal forms!

"No way!" Yamato shared our collective nervousness at what just happened.  
"Everyone turned back…" muttered Takeru.  
"Takeru, I'm sorry." Patamon apologized as he flew over to our youngest member.  
"It's not your fault, Patamon."  
"But we can't win like this." Hikari expressed her fears.  
"Don't give up!" Tailmon tried to snap her out of her pessimistic thoughts.  
"It's okay! We can still fight!" Gabumon's mood remained positive.  
"Yeah, we're not through yet!" Guilmon added.  
"If we just evolve again…" Tentomon said.  
"That's right! Evolve one more time, guys!" Jou ordered.  
"Leave it to us!" Gomamon assured.  
"I'm a little hungry, though…" Palmon complained.  
"It's okay! Just put some spirit into it!" Agumon told her.  
"We're counting on you, everyone!" Gabumon shouted and all of us children nodded.

"Death Claw!" Apoclymon shouted Devimon's signature attack and another wave of hands attacked us… this time ripping our Crests from our necks before suddenly disintegrated them right before our eyes!  
"Our Crests!" Taichi shouted.  
"They're destroyed…" Takeru said in disbelief.  
"Now we can't make them evolve!" Sora cried.  
"We're screwed! We're quite literally screwed now!" I stated.  
"We see you are beginning to understand the despair we had felt from being unable to evolve."  
"U-Unbelievable… Our Crests are gone!" Jou reiterated.  
"How can we win against it if we can't evolve?" Mimi asked.  
"We just can't!" Koushiro grabbed his hair as if he was going to start pulling it out. "With the combined powers of all the Digimon at this command, it's the strongest enemy we've ever faced! Child-Level Digimon will never defeat him, no matter how hard they try!"  
"That can't be! There's gotta be a way!" Taichi believed.  
"How did the Chosen Children before us defeat their enemy?" Yamato wondered.

Apoclymon's hands shot forward and it started to chant some weird words as it moved its hands. What on earth is it saying? Jou suddenly gave a blood-curdling cry that drew our attention to him. Jou was staring at his feet and there were beginning to crumble like glass! I looked down and saw the same thing was happening to others as well as myself! I didn't feel any pain, but just the fact that I was essentially seeing my end… was impossible to even describe or comprehend, until it was far too late.  
"This is-" Yamato shouted.  
"Oh no! Our bodies are being taken apart and turned into electronic data!" informed Koushiro.  
"What?!" Taichi questioned.  
"Then what…" Piyomon said.  
"Is going…" Guilmon continued.  
"To happen…" Gabumon added.  
"To us?!" Agumon finished. The crumbling reached my head as my screams as well as the others went silent… and everything turned white.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

A white, empty abyss. That was the perfect way to describe what the children could now see after Apoclymon had turned them into data. The only thing they could actually see in the abyss was zeros and ones of binary code floating around them.  
"Where are we?" Taichi asked.  
"The world of information." theorized Koushiro. "All of us have been broken down into data!"  
"Broken down?! Can we be un-broken down?!" Mimi questioned with fear in her voice.  
"I don't know."  
"What will happen to us if we can't turn back?!" Jou worried.  
"Are we finished?!" Hikari feared.  
"I don't know. It's the first time this has ever happened to me!" Sora said. "What should we do?!"  
"Are we going to be stuck like this forever? I feel like I've been cheated eternal peace." Ross moaned.  
"Have we… lost?" Taichi mentioned the words everyone had feared.  
"Is everything over?" Yamato dreaded.

"Don't get discouraged!" Agumon tried to restore confidence.  
"Agumon…" Taichi said.  
"I'll fight to the bitter end!" declared Gabumon. "So don't lose hope!"  
"Not until bodies stop moving will we ever quit! So you shouldn't either!" Guilmon stated.  
"That's right! There were many times we thought it was all over, but we always stuck together and fought through it!" Piyomon recalled.  
"Yes, but we've been disintegrated into data!" reminded Sora. "Forget about beating the enemy, we don't even know if we can turn back into our human forms again!"  
"Even if we did, they can't evolve without our Crests!" Jou yelled.  
"This has never happened before. How does one deal with having one's data dissolved?" wondered Koushiro. "No one knows!"  
"Then tell me, Koushiro-han, did you always know how to win in all of the battles you've faced?" Tentomon asked.  
"That's right! There's always a lot of firsts in an adventure!" Gabumon said some words of wisdom.

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

"We never knew what we had to do during all those other times!" Gomamon recollected.  
"You're right!" I shouted. "I didn't know anything about this Digimon world. There was always something one after the other that almost made my heart stop!" My memories thought back to our first day in the Digimon world and how I was utterly terrified of Pukamon, Kuwagamon, really all the Digimon.  
"But because of you and everyone else, Jou, we were able to squeeze through it together!"  
"Yeah… At first, all I could think about was getting out of this place as soon as I could… but ever since I got here, I've experienced so many things that I wouldn't have found out through textbooks." I then thought back to when I save Takeru from drowning in Tokyo Bay as we tried to get through Vamdemon's cloud barrier… at nearly the cost of my own life. Thankfully, I had Zudomon there to save me and get us through.

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

"There were things that I didn't like and things that made me cry, but…" I informed.  
"Are you glad that we became friends?" Palmon asked.  
"Yeah. I feel that I've become stronger because I've met all of you." I remembered the terrifying moments of the fighting at Big Sight when my parents were caught up in everything thanks to that bloodsucker, Vamdemon. But even when things looked bleak, I hung on and didn't quit and things managed to somehow work out, thanks to Lilimon.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

"Until I met you, Takeru, I thought I didn't need to evolve. But…" Patamon said as I recalled the night the night Patamon first evolved into Angemon, and even though he had used up all his energy to defeat Devimon, he still proudly fought in order to save me.  
"Me too. Because I've met you, Patamon, I think I understand now how important it is to fight." I then remembered earlier when Patamon finally reached his Ultimate-Level of HolyAngemon to save all of us from Piemon.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

"You've always been so sweet to me, Sora." She kindly informed.  
"Piyomon."  
"That part of you is what everyone loves about you." She really is something else. She helped me realize that even though I won't always see eye to eye with my mother, I still was truly loved and that love carried over and helped Piyomon become Garudamon, rescuing us from a grizzly fate at the hands of Vamdemon.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

"Koushiro-han." Tentomon spoke up. "I've learned a lot by being with you. Well, there were a few times I felt hurt when you never saw past your laptop."  
"Tentomon."  
"But that's still another part of you that I like." I am truly grateful for Tentomon's willingness to put up with me when I'm kinda buried in my computer. Without him, I'd probably be still a brainless shell of myself in Vademon's pocket dimension. Thanks to AtlurKabuterimon however, that wasn't a problem.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"Since I've met you, Ross, you've been one to march forward and take on whatever was thrown at you." Guilmon began.  
"When you put it that way, it sounds like I was being foolish."  
"That isn't being foolish. That's you standing by your friends and being an example of strength and bravery." Boy, is he right. I thought back to when we thought that Etemon would destroy us all and how I kept my promise to Taichi by being at his side and Guilmon followed along completely trusting my decision. At first, I thought we were just doing a suicidal charge to buy the others time to escape, but MegaloGrowmon helped turn that into a victory.

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

"Yamato…" Gabumon started to say a few words.  
"You don't have to say anything. I already know." I told him. I had been a complete jerk to Jou when we were trapped at Digitamamon's restaurant and even then Jou was stilling willing to help me even when I yelled at him. It helped me realize how important the friendship of the others is to me and especially Gabumon's. That came through when it mattered and we were able to escape that egg thanks to WereGarurumon.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Hey, Taichi!" Agumon called out. "When we're together, we're invincible, right?"  
"You got it!" I smiled. He's truly been so much help to me. Like when I needed to muster my courage in order to rescue Sora from Nanomon. And then when we had to deal with Etemon and evolved into MetalGreymon to save everyone from that crazy monkey.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

"We can't let ourselves be defeated here." Tailmon insisted. "If we do, then what was the point of my search for Hikari all this time?"  
"Tailmon."  
"I've been waiting so long for the day when I could meet you and protect you, Hikari." I'm blessed to have found Tailmon and save her from her life of servitude to Vamdemon. Even with Wizarmon's sacrifice, we both found the power to help her evolve to Angewomon and truly free herself from the dark period of her life.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

"If I hadn't met Tailmon…" Hikari said.  
"If I hadn't come to the Digimon world…" Jou continued.  
"If I hadn't gone on an adventure with everyone else…" Mimi believed.  
"We wouldn't be who we are today!" Koushiro cried.  
"You're right! Because our Digimon were always with us…" Yamato remembered.  
"Because our friends were with us…" Takeru agreed.  
"Because we fought for what we believed in…" Ross informed.  
"Because we understood the importance of helping each other out…" Sora realized.  
"We were able to stay true to ourselves!" shouted Taichi.

Back on Earth, their families kept watching the events unfold above and kept their hopes alive by continuing to support their loved ones.  
"Keep it up!" Hiroaki yelled as he and Natsuko were holding hands.  
"For Earth!" cheered Shin.  
"You children are our pride!" Toshiko informed.  
"Don't give up!" Phil shouted.  
"You can do it!" Masami believed as he and Kae held each other closely.

"That's right! We can't let things end here!" Taichi insisted.  
"We can't let our adventures go to waste!" Sora believed.  
"We've come too far to be stopped now!" Ross stated.  
"For our encounter with our Digimon and the friendships we've made…" Yamato reminded.  
"And for the sake of those we love, who are waiting for us back on Earth…" Koushiro added.  
"We…" Mimi said.  
"Us…" Yamato uttered.  
"All of us…" Takeru determined.  
"We will never look back anymore!" professed Jou.  
"We won't let the light within our hearts die out!" Hikari declared.

Upon those words being said, the children's chests began to shine with the symbols of their Crests.  
"This is…!" Takeru was in disbelief.  
"Your Crests! The symbols that were carved on your Crests were actually the symbols of your hearts!" explained Agumon.  
"Our hearts?" Taichi questioned.  
"Just like the knowledge inside of me… and the sincerity within Jou-san… If we continue to act upon the special qualities of our hearts, then our Crests are unnecessary to us!" Koushiro figured.  
"No, you're wrong." Yamato augured. "It isn't the friendship inside of me that suddenly started glowing! All of your friendship gathered inside me, and that's what caused my Crest of Friendship to glow!"  
"One Crest is for everyone… and everyone's Crest is for one!" Taichi shouted.

"Then the light inside of me is for everyone!"  
"Tailmon, super-evolve! ANGEWOMON!"  
"And everyone's hopes are my hopes!"  
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON! Angemon, super-evolve! HOLYANGEMON!"  
"Knowledge!"  
"Tentomon, evolve! KABUTERIMON! Kabuterimon, super-evolve! ATLURKABUTERIMON!"  
"Purity!"  
"Palmon, evolve! TOGEMON! Togemon, super-evolve! LILIMON!"  
"Sincerity!"  
"Gomamon, evolve! IKKAKUMON! Ikkakumon, super-evolve! ZUDOMON!"  
"Honor!"  
"Guilmon, evolve! GROWMON! Growmon, super-evolve! MEGALOGROWMON!"  
"Love!"  
"Piyomon, evolve! BIRDRAMON! Birdramon, super-evolve! GARUDAMON!"  
"Friendship!"  
"Gabumon, warp-evolve! METALGARURUMON!"  
"Courage!"  
"Agumon, warp-evolve! WARGREYMON!"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

That whole binary world began to fade in front of us and it all became dark again. And right in front of us was Apoclymon with the biggest look of surprise that I had ever seen.  
"WHAT?!"  
"We're not gonna let you have your way!" yelled Taichi as we all got ready for battle.

It's time we end this! Once and for all…!

* * *

This is going to end badly for one side... It's Apoclymon. We all know this.

Anyways, just one more chapter and then the epilogue, but this story isn't done yet. Not by a long shot!

Take care until then because I'm gonna upload both the final chapter and the epilogue together so its going to be a bit longer of a wait.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	56. A New World!

And here we are... the end.

Shoot, I'm starting to tear up already.

I kinda changed my mind about posting the epilogue as I got this done quick. So here you go.

Shout out to **MadDogLucario96** for his review and **DigimonAT0318** for all of the reviews he posted. Practically doubled the amount of reviews, thanks from the bottom of my heart.

Anyways... let's end this!

* * *

 **Chapter 55: A New World!**

 _Digital World. R-Day+11. Time Unknown.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We were currently staring down that monstrosity called Apoclymon with our Digimon back to their strongest forms and our morale at its highest. It couldn't defeat us by turning us into data and there's no way in Hell that its beating us now!  
"Impossible! How did you evolve without your Crests?!" roared Apoclymon.  
"Don't go underestimating us Chosen Children!" Yamato countered.  
"Got that right." Taichi agreed. "Now… Let's go get it, guys!"  
"Yeah!" We all threw our fists in the air and shouted. All of us gathered on our respective Digimon and charged straight forward at the abomination.

"DIE!" It screamed as its metal claws shot towards us.  
"Hammer Spark!" Zudomon swung his hammer and the whole claw was blown to bits.  
"We'll take care of those claws!" Jou informed.  
"Let's help them, Lilimon!" Mimi suggested as she hung on to Lilimon's hand.  
"Okay."  
"What? What are you-?!" Mimi couldn't even finish her sentence as Lilimon suddenly her in the air!  
"Flower Cannon!" Lilimon was now free to destroy the claw and did so before she recovered Mimi.  
"How could you do that to me?!"  
"Well, I _am_ your Digimon, Mimi."  
"And just what do you mean by that?" Zudomon and Jou kept up their attacks and were clearing a path for us.  
"Use this chance to attack its main body!"

"Okay!" Taichi nodded, however, more claws were coming their direction.  
"Jou-senpai, Mimi-chan, look out!" Sora warned.  
"Heaven's Gate!" "Holy Arrow!" HolyAngemon and Angewomon quickly flew it and managed to destroy the attacking claws before they could harm the others. The speed they moved at… literal Blue Angels right there.  
"Both Hikari-chan and I will protect you two!" Takeru called out.  
"Take care of the other claws!" Hikari chimed in.  
"Thank you!" "You're a big help!" Mimi and Jou thanked.  
"All right, Yamato! Full speed ahead!" Taichi told the blonde.  
"Yeah!"  
"Charge!"

The three of us remaining flew in right beside the two Ultimates as we closed the distance; all the while the others were blasting any claws that were coming our direction.  
"Koushiro-kun, Ross and I will assist Taichi and Yamato!" Sora yelled out.  
"Close up formation, you two. Let's keep those claws off their back!" I informed.  
"You two only need to concentrate on attacking!" suggested Koushiro to Taichi and Yamato.  
"Okay!" Yamato understood.  
"You bastards… Plug Bomb!" Boy, we're making it mad now. It's attacking us with Nanomon's move.  
"AtlurKabuterimon! Take care of Sora for me!" Garudamon needed Sora off of her so she could use her Shadow Wing.  
"You got it!" He said as Sora jumped off.  
"Shadow Wing!" The Plug Bombs were destroyed and the attack actually flew right by Apoclymon who had to dodge the attack.  
"Thanks, Garudamon!" Sora jumped back onto the bird-woman Digimon.

Apoclymon was getting angrier and angrier with each passing moment. Two more claws showed up in front of us and turned in to silhouettes of previous foes.  
"Bloody Stream!" It shouted.  
"Oh, not this time! Atomic Blaster!" MegaloGrowmon's attack tore through the red lighting before striking the claw and destroying it. It also detonated right behind Apoclymon, doing some damage to it. Now there was only one claw left defending it.  
"Mugen Cannon!"  
"Now it's my turn! Horn Buster!" AtlurKabuterimon's bolt tore through not only the claw but also exploding right in front of the monstrosity.  
"Taichi, Yamato! You've got a clear shot! Do us a favor, don't miss!" I exclaimed.

"Finish it off!" "Take this!" The two of them yelled.  
"Cocytus Breath!" "Gaia Force!" Both of their attacks hit their target directly and Apoclymon screamed in pain as it was disintegrated! However, the polyhedron was still there, so we didn't finish it off yet.  
"We did it!" cheered Yamato.  
"We destroyed all of its claws too!" Jou added.  
"We've taken you down! Give it up!" Taichi ordered. The polyhedron began to glow purple and we heard that thing's laugh.  
"You think you've won?"  
"There's no point in acting tough!" Yamato shouted.  
"Is that so?" Black mist started to leak out of the polyhedron and it looked like there were sinister faces on the mist. "Perish we shall. But we won't go away quietly! We will drag you and this entire world down with us!"  
"What!?" Taichi questioned. Damn it, this thing has a dead man's switch!  
"Watch! Our ultimate finishing blow! Grand Death Big Bomb!"

The polyhedron exploded and it seemed like all time had stopped with the bright white light of the explosion.  
 _"_ _It self-destructed!"  
_ _"Is this the end for us?"  
_ _"I don't want that!"  
_ _"_ _It's not the end."  
_ _"_ _It won't end."  
_ _"_ _I won't let it end."  
_ _"_ _Like hell this is the end!"  
_ _"_ _This is not the end!"  
_ _"It'll never be the end!"  
_ _"_ _Because…"  
_ _"We all have…"  
_ "Tomorrow waiting for us!" We all shouted.

Our Digivices suddenly flew off of us and floated into nine different positions before they shot beams of light out of them and connected with each other, creating a perimeter around explosion. The explosion began to shrink until there was a burst of light. Then everything went silent.  
"What… was that?" I questioned.  
"What happened to the explosion?" Takeru asked.  
"It must have been contained through the power of our Digivices." theorized Koushiro.  
"Does that mean we've won?!" Taichi wondered.  
"It looks that way." Yamato believed.  
"Then the destruction of the world is also-" Jou staggered in front of us in complete shock.  
"We've stopped it!" cried Sora.  
"Yeah!" Hikari cheered.

"Heeey!" A familiar voice yelled out. We looked to see Ogremon and Andromon, who was carrying Elecmon in his arms, were charging towards us.  
"You did it!" Elecmon cried.  
"Yes, we did!" HolyAngemon replied.  
"You guys are really somethin' else!" Ogremon admitted.  
"Oh, you think so?" Mimi teased.  
"Thank you very much. I mean it." Andromon gave his eternal gratitude.  
"Oh, there's no need to thank us." Koushiro tried to be humble, making us all laugh.

We did it. We actually, finally did it.

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

Thanks to Apoclymon's destruction, across the world, the sky began to clear to reveal the pre-dawn hour, and the Digimon that were appearing around the world slowly began to fade and vanish, returning to their proper home in the Digital World. With the families of the Chosen Children… they couldn't be any prouder.  
"Guys…" Shin whispered. "You all did great."

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

We heard the sounds of what sounded like a jet engine and looked to see to streaks of light fast approaching. The lights turned out to be Kentarumon and a Mechanorimon that opened up to reveal Gennai.  
"It seems your world is also saved." Gennai informed to our absolute relief.  
"Yeah." We all nodded.  
"So, what's going to happen to the Digimon world now?" Takeru asked.  
"Take a good look below you." Kentarumon pointed. We all looked down to see a light forming below us that widened to reveal a large island.  
"An island?"  
"It's File Island!" Taichi shouted.  
"The prophecy in the ancient ruins ended with these words. 'The first to change appearance was an island, and this island made new sky, sea, and land.'" The centaur explained.  
"What does that mean?" inquired Mimi.  
"It means, in other words, that the Digimon world will be crated anew."  
"That's… What's all that down there?" Taichi noticed a vast swarm of small black dots swarming the island.  
"It may be the Digimon who are reviving along with this world." Gennai said.  
"Really?" We all cried.  
"Let's go have a look, guys!" Taichi suggested.  
"Yeah!"

 _Village of Beginnings, File Island, Digital World. R-Day+12. Dawn._

Boy, this place brings back some decent memories. It doesn't look like a thing has changed.  
"The village is back to normal!" Elecmon was on the verge of crying. I don't ever think I've seen someone that excited to go back to work. We looked up and saw falling from the sky was countless numbers of Digieggs.  
"There are so many Digieggs!" Takeru shouted. "Yay!" He and Patamon ran forward with Elecmon following behind.  
"Hey, wait for me!"  
"Rub rub~" They began to rub the Digieggs to make them hatch.  
"What are you guys doing?" Hikari asked as she walked up to them.  
"We're making the Digieggs hatch!" Takeru told her. She picked up one that rolled to her.  
"All of them?"  
"Yup! A lot of Digimon will be born from these Digieggs! The future of the Digimon world is just beginning!" Elecmon declared.  
"Why don't you join us, Hikari-chan?"  
"Okay!" She got to work rubbing the egg along with them.  
"Rub rub!" They all sang.

"Now Leomon will be reborn again." Ogremon said. Oh, is that why Ogremon fought alongside us? Because Leomon got killed?  
"Really?" Mimi was surprised by this news. "Does that mean Piccolomon, Whamon, and the others will be, too?"  
"Yes, someday." Gennai confirmed. Mimi grew a wide smile on her face upon hearing that.  
"How about we take a picture to commemorate the occasion, everyone?" Andromon gave out a great idea.  
"A picture? Sounds nice!" "Good idea! "Agreed!" "I'm in!" "I'll go get Takeru-kun and the others!" We answered.  
"A picture, eh?" Gennai started to work on his ponytail. I had to chuckle at that.

Koushiro gathered Takeru and Hikari and we all gathered around and stood in front of Andromon as his eyes narrowed like he was adjusting a camera lens.  
"Okay, go ahead!" Taichi told him we were ready.  
"Say cheese!" Hikari made a small gasp as Andromon said that.  
"What's wrong?" Takeru asked. We were suddenly engulfed in a pink puff of dust as Andromon took the photo. We looked down to see that the Digiegg had hatched and Hikari now had a Botamon in her arms.  
"What happened?" questioned Tailmon.  
"It hatched!" Elecmon cried.  
"It's so cute!" Patamon cheered. Hikari put the little baby up to her check and began rubbing him with a pure smile on her face.

"Well, then." We all turned to see Ogremon now dressed like a wandering swordsman from Kurosawa film. Hard to believe that genius died a year ago.  
"Why are you dressed like that?" Mimi asked.  
"I've got no business here anymore. I'm gonna go traveling!"  
"Why? Stay with us!" Palmon seemed really hurt to see him leave.  
"No frickin' way! You think a proud Virus attribute as awesome as myself can stand hanging around with you Data and Vaccines? I'm so outta here! See ya!" He began to walk away.  
"Hey! Guilmon is a Virus-type too, but you don't hear him complaining!" I shouted at him.  
"I am?!" Wait, he didn't know that? We all turned our attention back to the now vanished Ogremon.  
"He left." Piyomon muttered.  
"Geez, he just won't admit that he likes us." Gomamon shook his head.  
"I can never get along with Virus attributes… present company excluded!" Tentomon quickly forgot what was said a second ago and tried dig himself out of the hole he just dug.  
"Now, don't say that." Gennai lectured the bug Digimon. "Back when Agumon had evolved into the evil SkullGreymon, I did say that he had evolved into the wrong form, but by that, I meant that it wasn't the evolution meant for your purposes. There's nothing right or wrong in evolution itself."  
"Then maybe the next time I evolve, I'll turn into a Virus attribute." Agumon crossed his arms.  
"Anything but that!" Gabumon, Tentomon and Piyomon cried.  
"Yeah, I'll join with you on that." Guilmon added.  
"Nooooo!" The three Digimon shouted again as we all shared a big laugh together.

 _Trolley Lake, File Island, Digital World. R-Day+12. Morning._

"How nostalgic…" Sora admitted. "This is where we spent our first night in this world."  
"Yes. This is where Gabumon first evolved into Garurumon and fought with Seadramon." Koushiro recalled.  
"Aw, a simpler time, when the Digimon attacking us were just like wild animals with no malevolence to them." I mentioned.  
"Well… A lot has happened to us, but all's well that ends well, right?" Jou asked. Hear, hear. "We can go back to our own world with pride! Maybe when we go back, they'll treat us like heroes! All of the reporters coming after us and stuff… What do you guys think?" We were all pretty apprehensive about that. I didn't feel like that much of a hero. Dad always said those who don't make it back are the heroes… I finally understood what he meant. Suddenly that whole reporters thing was something I was not looking forward to seeing when we get home.  
"Jou." Gomamon got his attention.  
"Oh no, I think I said something wrong. But hey, even if we go home, we can always come back and-"  
"Jou."  
"Er, oh yeah, it won't work out even if we do come back. The flow of time is different between this world and our world, so we don' t know if we'll even live to see each other again…" Geez, Jou, way to depress us. "I'm sorry."

"Hey!" Yamato spoke up.  
"What?" Sora questioned...  
"We still have a lot of time left for summer vacation, right? I'm thinking of staying in this world until vacation is over." That quickly got our attention.  
"That's a good idea!" Jou agreed.  
"If Onii-chan is staying here, than I am, too!" Takeru chimed in.  
"So am I! That's okay, right, Onii-chan? Ross-chan?" Hikari asked.  
"Yeah." Taichi answered.  
"Well, you two ain't leaving me behind." I told them.  
"Maybe I should, too." Koushiro admitted.  
"Me too!" Mimi cried.  
"So will I! We have lots of time." Sora reminded.  
"That's right. If we consider one day in this world to be the equivalent of one minute in our world, and we have four weeks of vacation…" Koushiro calculated.  
"Leave the mental math to me!" Jou offered. "Let's see… 40,320 days… That makes it about 110 years!" Holy…!  
"That long?!" Mimi was shocked by the answer.  
"Let's start a new adventure!" Yamato suggested.  
"All right, then, let's go! To our new adventure!" Taichi declared.  
"Agreed!" We all shouted.

"Huh?" Agumon looked to the sun and a black object was slowly covering it. Gennai and Kentarumon walked over to us when we saw that.  
"That's a solar eclipse, isn't it?" Koushiro asked Gennai.  
"Children, there is something I must tell you."  
"Tell us? Is it good news? Or bad news?" inquired Mimi. Gennai groaned.  
"It's most likely… bad news." Oh no.  
"It's not a normal eclipse?" Koushiro asked again.  
"The part that's in shadow is the Gate that connects us to your world." Kentarumon explained. "The eclipse will end in two hours."  
"So what?" Yamato seemed to dismiss that news. "We can just wait for the next time the Gate opens."  
"That's right! After all, we still have 110 years of summer vacation left!" Mimi believed.  
"Actually, Apoclymon's appearance cause the flow of time between the Digimon world and your world to be brought back into alignment." informed Gennai.  
"What?" Taichi questioned. It's already morning back home? I was fearful to ask the next question.  
"Gennai-san, what would happen if we tried to stay here?" I asked.  
"This world may view your data as anomalies and erase you." Our eyes widened on that answer. "I'm sorry." Great. This is just great. We save the Digital World and what is our reward from it? An eviction notice that if not followed results in deadly force. We all looked to the eclipse feeling depressed.

We were going to have to say goodbye.

 _P.O.V. – Sora Takenouchi_

I climbed up and sat in a tree with Piyomon as we just stared at the ground below, still sad that we had to leave.  
"When you're back home, say hello to your mother for me." She asked me.  
"Okay. I want to thank you for that, Piyomon. I've misunderstood my mom all this time…" I looked up to the sky and smiled. "…but because of you, things between us are all right now. I'm sure I'll be able to get along just fine with her from now on."  
"Really?"  
"Really."  
"If that's true, then I'm happy! I thought you only saw me as a bother because I keep depending on you." I started to cried on hearing those words. I quickly gave her a hug.  
"That's not true. That was never true, Piyomon."  
"Sora…"  
"Piyomon…"

 _P.O.V. – Jou Kido_

I threw another rock in the water as Gomamon and I sat on the lake shore.  
"You and I might not have been a good team, Gomamon… but I had a lot of fun being with you."  
"So did I. Anyway, good luck studying over there."  
"Yeah." I held out my hand.  
"What?"  
"Let's shake hands."  
"Oh? Okay." He cleared off his paw before shaking with me.  
"Eh?"  
"What?"  
"That really _was_ a hand." Gomamon looked annoyed for a second before we broke out laughing.

 _P.O.V. – Koushiro Izumi_

I was sitting in the trolley car with Tentomon that was at the center of the lake working with Gennai. He said this was going to be our transportation home so he was using the Mechanorimon suit to quickly repair the trolley.  
"Tentomon." I said as I typed away on my laptop.  
"Koushiro-han?"  
"I've… really… I've really imposed upon you greatly." I turned to him, only to see him fall over. "T-Tentomon!" I picked him up.  
"Even to the very end, you talk so formally to me."  
"Sorry. I'm sorry. But then, what's more appropriate for me to say at a time like this?"  
"That's a difficult question. But I think you don't have to push yourself to say the words. Formal talk is okay this way. I'm sure there will come a time one day when the words will just flow naturally."  
"You think so? I hope so too." I put my arms around for a hug.

 _P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi_

Patamon and I were busy standing out in a field of flowers crying because of the fact that I had to leave and say goodbye.  
"Takeru, don't cry!" Patamon cried.  
"But… but… we'll never see each other again!"  
"That's not true! The flow of time is the same between your world and my world now, so I'm sure there'll be a day when we'll see each other again!" I stopped crying when he said that.  
"Really?"  
"We saw each other again after Devimon, remember?"  
"Yeah." I nodded. "That's because I believed that we'd meet again."  
"Believe in it again this time!"  
"Okay. Then let's see each other again. Promise?"  
"Promise!" We shook hands as the wind picked up.

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

I was sitting near a creek bed with Guilmon just waiting for the time we had to leave.  
"Typical. We spend all this time together with death hanging over our heads and the moment peacetime arrives, we have to leave."  
"Yeah. It's a shame. I was looking forward to seeing all those movies and shows you were talking about."  
"Mm-hm." I sighed. "Guilmon, thank you for everything."  
"Hm?"  
"If it wasn't for you… I never would've come clean about my depression and talked about it. Now, I think I'm fully out of it."  
"Well, that's what friends do. I help you and you help me."  
"Yeah, thanks for being the greatest friend a kid could ask for." I held out my hand and we both shook hands. "Do me a favor. Watch over the Digital World for us, would you?"  
"Sure. And, Ross, promise me this… don't ever forget about me." I smiled when he said that.  
"Now that's a promise I know I can keep."

 _P.O.V. – Yamato Ishida_

Gabumon and I were staring out into the distance from the ridge we were sitting on, saying nothing.  
"Hey, Yamato…"  
"Hm?"  
"Could you play your harmonica for me again?"  
"Okay." I pulled it out and started to play.

 _P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami_

"Geez. Yamato, you jerk…" He just had to play that harmonica at this time. Now I'm even more sad.  
"What's wrong?" Agumon asked.  
"Nothing!" I tried to suck up my tears.  
"Hmm. Hey. This is the place, right, Taichi? This is where I torched the firewood with my Baby Flame."  
"Yeah, that's right." I walked up to him. "Then the embers burned Seadramon's tail and that's what made him mad!" I rubbed his head.  
"Huh? It was my fault?"  
"No. It was me who stuck his tail in the embers." I laughed.  
"Taichi!" He couldn't stay mad and joined in my laugh.

 _P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami_

"For me?" Tailmon asked as I took my whistle off of my neck and held it up to her.  
"Yeah." I placed it around her neck.  
"Thank you."  
"It looks very good on you."  
"Really?" She began to blush. "Well… Take care… Hikari."  
"Yeah. Until next time."  
"Next time?"  
"Yeah, that's right!"

 _P.O.V. – Mimi Tachikawa_

"Palmon!" I called out for her. She said she needed to go somewhere for a moment but she hasn't been back since! "Palmon!"  
"Huh? Mimi, what are you doing, ribbit?" asked a nearby Gekomon.  
"Palmon isn't here. Have you seen her?"  
"No, ribbit."  
"Oh… Where could Palmon have gone? There's not much time left." I looked to the eclipse. "Palmon! Palmon!"

 _P.O.V. – Third Person_

The children gathered near the trolley as they all got ready to leave the Digital World and go back home.  
"Have you all finished saying you goodbyes? We've taken care of your departure preparations here." Gennai said. "Once you get on this trolley, it will take you back to your world."  
"Well…" Taichi tried to say something but Mimi broke down and cried.  
"Can we have a little more time?" Sora asked. "Just a few more minutes!"  
"We can't the Gate won't wait for us." Gennai sadly answered.  
"But...!"  
"What's wrong?"  
"Palmon disappeared." Agumon answered.  
"Stupid, stupid, stupid Palmon!" Mimi cursed.

"Mimi…" Palmon muttered as she hid in the bushes while looking towards the sky. She turned to see two Gekomon had found her.  
"Oh, here you are, ribbit. Mimi was looking for you, ribbit."  
"I know." Palmon cried. "But I don't want to see her."  
"Why, ribbit?"  
"Because it'll hurt saying goodbye to her. It's better if I don't see her at all…"  
"Are you okay with that, ribbit? Are you sure that's okay, ribbit? You won't regret it later, ribbit, will you?"  
"Mimi…"

 _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

"It's time." Gennai said those fateful words. "Get on the trolley." I wish there was something I could do for Mimi as she was still crying, but where the hell did Palmon vanish to?  
"Okay…" Taichi said as we all marched on to the vehicle. We opened the windows to the trolley and looked down to our Digimon partners. "Well, guys… Take care."  
"You, too." Agumon replied. The trolley sign switched station names until it said Odaiba and Tailmon blew the whistle. Electricity crackled and activated the trolley. The wheels began to spin and we began rolling into the sky towards the gate.  
"Goodbye!" We all yelled at each other as we wave.

"Mimi!" We managed to hear a voice. Looking towards the beach was a certain plant Digimon that was trying to keep up with us on shore.  
"Mimi-chan!" Sora got Mimi's attention.  
"Mimi! Mimi!"  
"Palmon!" Mimi stuck her head out the window.  
"Mimi! I'm sorry!"  
"It's okay! It's okay, Palmon! Goodbye! Thank you for everything!"  
"Goodbye Mimi!" Palmon lost her footing and tripped forward as Mimi's hat suddenly went sailing through the air. The other Digimon caught up with her as she got back up and kept running after us as until they finally came to the lake's edge.

"GOODBYE!" They shouted.  
"GOODBYE!" We shouted back.

We kept sailing towards the sun until every suddenly exploded in a flash of light…

* * *

And that was the final episode... but we're not done with this story just yet. There's still the epilogue to write which I'm gonna knock out quick, so expect to see it tomorrow.

Anyways, see you all tomorrow.

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."**_


	57. Epilogue

And here we are. The end... for now.

I just want to say thank you to all of you who were willing to stick around and support me with this story. At first I was worried that this was all one big mistake, but your kind words really made all the difference.

Now, this epilogue was supposed to be longer, but I decided other wise, a bit shorter than most chapters but that's probably what it should be. I've got more things to say, but that can be said at the end. So for now, enjoy the final chapter of Sweat, Tears, and Evolutions: My Digimon Adventure!

* * *

 **Epilogue**

 _Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. August 4th, 1999. 1021 Hours.  
_ _P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery_

The light flashed before it all went dark and then our surroundings looked like a subway tunnel as the trolley slowed down and rolled to a stop at the end of the tunnel.  
"That was… sudden." Yamato observed.  
"And it feels like I've seen this before… did we hit 88 miles per hour?" I joked.  
"Yeah, someone check the back and see if there's a flux capacitor back there." Taichi chimed in.  
"You two…" Hikari shook her head with a smile on her face.  
"But in all seriousness, where are we?" Sora asked.  
"Looks like a subway tunnel." Koushiro looked around.  
"This tunnel actually looks familiar." Mimi said.  
"Because it is familiar! This is one of the Odaiba rail lines!" Jou exclaimed.  
"We're home…" Takeru sighed in relief.

The next few minutes we were slowly walking through the empty subway before we reached the surface and were suddenly blinded by the bright sun as our eyes readjusted. By the time our eyes came to, a Type 96 APC drove right in front of the street we were looking at. All around us were people wandering with the Self-Defense Forces looking like they were trying to organize everything.  
"Army got here quick." Jou noticed.  
"What do you expect, whole area covered in a dome of fog, and then an entire continent in the sky… I wonder how long their response time was." Yamato shrugged.  
"Come on! Let's see if our families are still waiting for us." Taichi led us back towards the epicenter of the fighting where we last saw our families.

After walking through some torn up streets and rubble the closer we got, we could see all of our folks sitting around talking to each other. Emotions exploded as we all ran to them.  
"Mom! Dad!" "Dad!" "Mama!" "Mama! Papa!" "Shin-niisan!" Our families turned to us and ran right towards us.  
"Taichi! Hikari!" "Yamato!" "Takeru!" "Mimi-chan!" "Jou!" "Sora!" "Ross!" "Koushiro!" It was one beautiful moment as we all reunited. We all spread out as we all had our own conversations with our folks, and we could truly rest now and not worry about rampaging Digimon or the destruction of the world.

"You okay?" Dad asked me.  
"Yeah, last 24 hours were quite a hellish affair, getting turned into a doll, broken down into data, but, we did it." Dad looked lost when I said that which made me laugh.  
"Well, I'm just glad to see you were safe… for a moment there, I was really worried. Of course, I should've had more confidence in my own son and his friends kicking that thing's ass." I laughed again.  
"Yeah, we destroyed Apoclymon and saved both worlds."  
"You did amazing. I'm so proud of you, Ross. More than you'll ever know."  
"Thanks, Dad."  
"Hey, what happened to your friend, what was his name? Gillmon?"  
"Guilmon, and… we had to say goodbye to them. They're alive, but they just had to stay behind."  
"I'm sorry to hear that." He patted me on the back.  
"It's okay, Dad. We'll see them again someday…" I believed.

 _Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. December 25th, 1999. 1103 Hours._

The past few months were quite a mess. Authorities around the world really didn't have many answers about the land in the sky or the Digimon sightings. As for Tokyo, it was bit of a different story. Our worries were well founded as we were eventually interviewed, but it wasn't the news agencies. The freaking PSIA practically interrogated us to try to get some answers! Well, maybe not interrogate, they were very respectful, but still, the feeling was there. We did eventually tell them our story, but I think we left them with more questions than we did answers. Thank goodness for Dad, he practically used all the influence he had with the Navy to try to help us. Maybe that's why they let us go after a few hours of telling our tale. Odaiba took a beating but construction crews have been working pretty fast. The government had to dip into the typhoon fund to finance much of the repairs but they were going along smoothly. The Rainbow Bridge is expected to be fully repaired as early as next month. As for us, well, we've kinda slowly gotten back into the routine of being normal kids.

Taichi still playing soccer with his squad and crushing it, I think our adventures may have improved his stamina and athleticism… if that was at all possible with him.

Sora and her mother reconciled and two have never been closer… much to the dismay of Prof. Takenouchi's wallet when those two go shopping. Sora really surprised Taichi and myself when she admitted that's she wants to start playing tennis like her mother. We told her that any girls team was going to miss a talented player like her, but she told us that soccer has just lost her interest, at least in terms of playing like she was before. She had made her choice, the fact that she was on great terms with her mother, the whole tomboy thing has kinda faded… like I suspected. I guess it was a form of rebellion against her mother.

Yamato is a much more open person now, practically smiling all the time, and it's not a cocky grin to make himself look cool. It's more genuine. Recently, he saw a band play in Big Sight and it's sparked his creative talents. He's practicing the guitar and I think he's looking to start a band of his own.

Nothing is that different with Jou, other than the fact that he's much more confident now and not a nervous wreck. He's currently getting ready to attend Junior High and the earliest efforts to become a doctor. Helping heal Ogremon clicked with him and now he's pretty sure that being a doctor is what he wants to do with his life, and not what his father tells him to do.

Koushiro being more social and not burying all of his time in that computer of his. I say not all the time because he's still typing away on that thing but it's for a good cause. He's trying to see if he can somehow get back in touch with the Digital World and from there, see if maybe he could figure out a way to open the gate so we can see the Digimon again.

Mimi's kinda the same, at least in terms of her home life. She wasn't really having a problem but she was acting a bit selfish before we all met. Not anymore. Mimi's much more selfless and less focused on herself. Heck, she surprised us a few weeks ago when she all gave us a gift. It was a full on replicas of our Tags and Crests! She said it was for all we had done for her when she felt like she really didn't deserve it. I think she's still kinda feeling bad about what she did at TonosamaGekomon's palace but we had forgiven her long ago.

Takeru has been popping by Odaiba even more often these days. I think things between his and Yamato's parents are getting a little better, I mean, it felt before like they barely had any contact which had greatly affected both Takeru and Yamato. Now, well, I think they're on more of better speaking terms which has had a great impact on both boys. Heck, Takeru barely resembles that kid we first met who always needed his older brother to look after him. This whole adventure helped him grow up.

Hikari's late entry into our adventures really didn't change her that much. She's still the same angel Taichi and I have always known. I think she might be a little more confident in herself, but I can't be too sure.

As for me, well, nothing much has changed with myself. Except of course, I'm no longer depressed, I don't feel alone, Dad's no longer out at sea, and I'm fairly satisfied with my life. Right now, I'm just taking life one day at a time, waiting for the day when I finally graduate school and become a marine. As of right now, I'm actually currently training, in a kind of geeky way...

 _"_ _Human civilization has always known conflict. But it wasn't until the 20th century that the scope magnified to such a bloody scale as to engulf the entire world. In the aftermath of 'the war to end all wars', Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party fanned the flames of a broken and dispirited nation, rebuilding the country from the ashes of the Versailles Treaty into a fascist juggernaut that seemed unstoppable. They pushed all the way to the Atlantic in the blitzkrieg with England their next target. But Winston Churchill of his small island nation won the Battle of Britain, holding out through Hitler's terror bombing for an entire year. They stoked the fires of freedom long enough to stay alive and to save the world. After Pearl Harbor, the United States, with all its military and industrial muscle, entered the war. First Africa, then Italy, and then finally Fortress Europe itself. You, soldier, are part of this great crusade. Are you ready to rise above and beyond the call of duty?"_

"Hey, Ross?" Taichi popped his head into the room.  
"What? I'm just about to play Medal of Honor." I told him as I petted Drew who was lying next to me.  
"Oh, is it any good?"  
"I don't know, I just opened it this morning, remember?" We had just opened our gifts a few hours ago.  
"Uh, have you seen Hikari?"  
"No, not for an hour, I think she was on the back porch." I got up and followed him and we found Hikari where I last saw her.  
"There you are, Hikari." Taichi said.  
"Kinda of a warm Christmas day, isn't it?" I zipped up my coat.  
"Yeah, I think it was like 8 degrees Celsius this morning."  
"So much for a white Christmas."

"What are you doing out here, Hikari?" Taichi asked.  
"I'm just looking to the sky. And wondering."  
"Wondering what?" I questioned.  
"If Tailmon's looking up at us. And Agumon and Guilmon too." She answered.  
"Oh." We both walked beside her and hung our arms over the balcony as we looked up to the cloudy sky. "Yeah, I'm sure they're looking up to the sky and thinking of us."  
"You really think so?"  
"Oh, we know so." Taichi smiled. "Don't you worry, Hikari. We'll see them one day. I'm positive…"

 _McGlathery Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. Dec. 31_ _th_ _, 2016. 0939 Hours._

That was all so long ago and I still remember it all like it was yesterday. The friends we made and lost, the fights we fought and won. In truth, I really wouldn't have had it any other way.  
"Dad! Come on! We're gonna be late! Mom and Naomi are already with the others!" I turned around to look at six year old brown haired and brown eyed boy who was standing in the living room doorway.  
"Alright, Ren, calm down. We'll make it." I told him as I walked over to the table to get the keys to my car.

Yep, I wouldn't have it any other way. Although that journey had ended, our adventures with the Digimon weren't over.

Not by a long shot…

* * *

Freedom! I finally finished this juggernaut of a story! Of course, as I said it's not over, there's still plenty to go.

First things first, I'm gonna do Our War Game in the next few days then after that... I'm going on a hiatus because I need to watch 02 in its original dub and then plan out everything because it's not gonna be the same 02 we've all know (and hope we loved). I guarantee, you're gonna enjoy it (I hope).

So, anyways, all of you have been great and I bless you all! Take care!

 _ **"Push the button, Frank."  
"I am the button."  
"Frank? Frank? Ugh, until next time, my little test subjects."**_


End file.
